Class ____ 

Book 

CopyrightN^* 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 




A really successful garden is well within the reach of any 
beginner who will try to master the principles of garden- 
ing as outlined in the following chapters rather than 
burden his mind with details 



THE 

GARDEN PRIMER 

A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK ON THE 
ELEMENTS OF GARDENING 
FOR BEGINNERS 

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED 
BY 

GRACE TABOR 




NEW YORK 
McBRIDE, NAST &- CO. 
1911 



COPYRIGHT 1911, BY 
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 



PRINTED OCTOBER. 1911 



©CI.A30521G 



TO 



THE GARDEN S APPRENTICES 



THAT THEY MAY SERVE JOYOUSLY AND WELL 



THE AUTHOR DEDICATES 



THIS LITTLE BOOK 



PREFACE 



TRUE to the name which it bears, this small volume 
presents only the elementary principles of gar- 
dening, its aim being to give these simply and, 
at the same time, completely. To this end it ''begins 
at the beginning," assuming that the student has no 
knowledge whatsoever of the subject. 

The tables and formulas included have been care- 
fully revised and brought up to the last moment of 
scientific experiment, and the author's indebtedness to 
the Department of Agriculture at Washington is here- 
with gratefully acknowledged, particularly for draw- 
ings of insects, from which the illustrations were re- 
drawn. The nomenclature of Bailey's ''Cyclopedia 
of American Horticulture'^ has been adhered to 
throughout, 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I INTRODUCTORY I 

II KINDS OF PLANTS . 3 

III NOMENCLATURE 7 

IV THE SOIL II 

V SEEDS AND SOWING 1 5 

VI SEEDLINGS AND TRANSPLANTING 21 

VII PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 24 

VIII PRUNING 28 

IX GARDEN PESTS 39 

SPRAYING TABLE 57 

SPRAYING CALENDAR 60 

X INSECT HELPERS 63 

XI FLOWERS AND POLLINATION 69 

XII VEGETABLES 77 

VEGETABLE PLANTING TABLE 8 1 

XIII FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 84 

XIV PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 92 

XV LAWNS , 103 

XVI BULBS 109 

HARDY BULB PLANTING TABLE II 6 

XVII ALL KINDS OF GARDENS I18 

LISTS OF PLANTS FOR SPECIAL LOCATIONS 1 25 

XVIII THE HOTBED AND THE COLDFRAME 136 

XIX GARDEN TOOLS 1 43 

XX SOME GENERAL GARDEN TALK 1 47 

XXI THE gardener's CALENDAR 1 53 

INDEX 161 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The beginner's goal Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

The garden as a setting for the house i 

The decorative power of vines 6 

An EngHsh door-yard 7 

The essentials for starting seeds 18 

The garden storehouse 19 

Seedlings ready for transplanting 24 

Transplanting seedlings to pots 25 

A well pruned hedge 32 

How pruning stimulates the growth of Privet. . . 33 

Good and bad tree pruning 36 

A specimen of hardy Hydrangea 37 

The garden to withstand the enemy 52 

The hand atomizer and powder gun 53 

A single rose — the perfect flower 72 

A path in Northcote, a New Hampshire garden . . 73 

Frost-resisting vegetables 80 

The orderly vegetable garden 81 

Feeding the vegetable garden 88 

A plant's means of assimilating nitrogen 89 

A stock geranium for cuttings 96 

Rooting Begonia Rex from the leaf 97 

A well kept lawn 104 



FACING PAGE 

The right way to rake grass clippings 105 

Spring-blooming bulbs 112 

Crocuses and Myrtle where grass will not grow. . 113 

A rock garden 120 

A water garden 121 

Root pruning 150 

Transplanting a small tree 151 



I 



INTRODUCTORY 

A GARDEN is alive — is a wonderful manifestation 
of life in many forms — with the deepest mystery 
of mysteries lying at its heart. All the miracles 
of creation are its commonplace, hourly incidents; its 
still activity holds the secret which alchemist and sage 
have ever sought and will ever go on seeking, until 
they find — or until they and the world cease to be. 

Gardening is therefore a wonderful privilege, and 
should be approached as such. Not only are its most 
arduous tasks lightened under this view of it, but the 
garden itself becomes something very different from 
what it has ever been — becomes a great inspiring teacher 
or the embodiment of a great philosophy, or — a fairy 
tale come true, according to the temperament of the 
gardener. 

A garden is not only alive itself — it is the support 
and sustenance of all life in the world, right up the 
scale to man. Without vegetation we should perish, 
promptly and ignominiously, meat eaters and vege- 
tarians alike. So the garden's importance can hardly 
be exaggerated, or the need for intelligent study of its 

I 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



many widely diversified factors be too strongly 
emphasized. 

The smallest plot of earth affords a field for study 
and work, even though it does not afford a "field," 
in the broader sense, for raising crops. And indeed it is 
far better to begin gardening operations little by little, 
on a little space, than to undertake much at the start. 
So many problems present themselves at the same time 
— they come so thick and so fast — that it would take a 
superhuman energy and nimbleness of wit in the be- 
ginner to cope with them all successfully. Do there- 
fore a little, and do it well; next year do a litde more, 
or do something quite different — then do both these 
things and add something nev/, as opportunity 
presents. This is the way to learn gardening and learn 
it thoroughly. 

For a small border anywhere, or for the treatment 
of isolated small places, a detailed planting diagram 
of the space is not of course necessary, unless shrub- 
bery is to fill it. But such a diagram will always 
help in making successful color and height combina- 
tions, and in starting things right, even in a small 
space; so, although herbaceous growth usually be- 
comes impatient of the Hmitations which a plan 
imposes and does pretty much as it pleases after a 
season or two, I should advise the beginner especially 
to work out, on paper first, a general pattern from 
which he will later work out a garden upon the ground. 



2 



II 



KINDS OF PLANTS 

HARDY PERENNIALS are plants that with- 
stand the winter in the ground and live for 
years, often indefinitely. They form increasingly large 
clumps which may be divided from time to time to 
make new plants, and these may be transplanted as 
desired, usually in the fall. Perennials may also be 
raised from seed planted in the spring or in late sum- 
mer and will bloom the following season. Hardy 
Perennials include Trees, Shrubs and Herbs, and do 
not require a winter covering. 

Hardy Annuals are plants that are grown from 
seed in the spring, last through several months of sum- 
mer, and then die. The seeds may be sown in the open 
groimd in April or in May, or under glass frames or in 
flat boxes indoors in late February or March. 

Hardy Biennials are sown one year, bloom the 
next year, and then die. These should have a light 
winter protection of straw, or leaves held down with 
brush. The seeds are sown the same as annuals. 

Half-hardy Perennials and half-hardy bien- 
nials are usually started under glass, but may be sown 

3 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



in the open ground after May 15. They require 
winter covering. 

Half-hardy Annuals are to be treated in the 
same way as tender annuals, requiring, as they do, 
the full time of a long summer in which to develop. 
They should not be sown out of doors until after 
June I. 

Tender Perennla.ls require still more care in 
starting them. Sow under glass and do not trans- 
plant to the open ground until after May 15. 

Tender Blennlils may be treated as tender 
perennials. 

Tender Annuals are sowtl under glass in early 
spring and the seedlings protected from both excessive 
sun and cold. They are transplanted from flats to 
pots or boxes and finally set out after May 25, by 
which time they are well gro^^n. 

Self-sowing plants are those which perpetuate 
themselves through the seed which they drop upon the 
ground around them. They cannot be depended on 
to come up in just the right place, but they may usually 
be transplanted. Poppies, however, are among those 
self-sowing plants which do not sur^dve transplanting 
and therefore must be weeded out or allowed to remain 
where they spring up. 

Shrubs and Trees are u'oody stemmed plants 
which differ very little, actually, from each other. 
Usually a shrub has many branches which start at the 
ground, while a tree has a single trunk. This is not 
uniformly true of either, however, and there is really 

4 



KINDS OF PLANTS 



only an arbitrary distinction; a small tree is called a 
tree-like shrub, while a shrub attaining to .30 feet in 
height is referred to under the same term. The line 
between the two cannot be sharply defined. 

Climbers are plants of weak stems, sometimes 
tali and sometimes low growing, which cannot Kft 
themselves without the aid of some support. They 
may be in any one of the classes mentioned above and 
they may have woody or juicy stems. Those which 
twine around their support are, strictly speaking, 
vines; chmbers raise themselves by means of tendrils, 
aerial rootlets or some special device provided for the 
purpose. Thus all vines are climbers, but all chmb- 
ers are not vines. Nurserymen commonly mean tall 
growing plants when they use the term climber; lower 
growing kinds they define as trailers. 

A difference of a single degree of latitude has a 
marked effect on many plants, though it is not distance 
north or south alone that tells. Some regions, for 
instance, from their topographical peculiarities, may be 
particularly adapted to the growth of certain things 
which ordinarily would not be hardy in that latitude; 
while possibly other locaKties further south are unfav- 
orable, by reason of their configuration, to the cultiva- 
tion of even lustier species. Altitude enters into the 
matter to a certain degree, likewise the texture of the 
soil, the proximity of large bodies of water and the 
direction of the prevaiHng winter winds. 

The knowledge that all perennials are not as easily 
raised from seed as most annuals, and that the latter 

5 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



produce an immediate effect instead of delaying a 
season, makes the latter more popular in one sense. 
No garden is complete without both, however, though 
the beginner will do well to understand only a few of 
either and those of the simplest and easiest culture. 

Of course it is apparent that under suitable 
climatic conditions the tenderest annual in the world 
might be perennial — that is, it might hve indefinitely 
from year to year, either from its roots or from self- 
sown seed; while it is equally apparent that the 
hardiest perennial of a North American garden 
would be only an annual if carried sufficiently far 
north from its native habitat. 




It is beyond the power of any man to know even half the 
members of the vegetable kingdom, but what knowledge 
is possible will more easily be added to if he learns to know 
each plant by its botanical name 



Ill 



NOMENCLATURE 

AT first, plant nomenclature, or the name classifi- 
cation of plants, may appear a staggering prop- 
osition — but do not be discouraged. It is not half so 
bad really as it looks, nor as it sounds when one is 
beginning. And your enjoyment of every grow- 
ing thing will be very much keener if you make its 
acquaintance under its own true name instead of 
under some dubious nickname which may or may 
not fit. 

The true botanical name of a plant has been 
bestowed upon it for some definite reason, by those 
who knew what they were about. It fits — and it 
means something. Learn it; pronounce it in sec- 
tions, just the way it is spelled; nine times out of 
ten you will have it right — and the tenth time is not 
going to matter. 

Of course no one in his right mind will speak of 
familiar flowers under their Latin names in ordinary 
conversation. We shall not gather armfuls of solidago 
Canadensis when we pick goldenrod, nor exclaim at 
the fragrance of Hemerocallis when the old day lilies 
are in bloom. That is not why one is urged to- learn 

7 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



them; but there are very many things which we al- 
ready know commonly under their true names. Why 
not know all of them? By doing so you will find your- 
self able to trace relationships among plants and plant 
families which you have never dreamed of. 

There is, for example, the gigantic yet dehcately 
lovely moonflower which blossoms only in the even- 
ing, the ever alluring morning-glory which opens with 
the sunrise, and the lacy foKaged cypress vine which 
bears its tiny, starry flowers all day, the same as other 
plants — all members of a family named Ipomoea, 
and all sharing a pecuKar family idiosyncrasy in the 
shape of a toughened seed which must be soaked or 
filed before planting, in order to promote free germi- 
nation. This is a very extensive family by the way, 
comprising something over three hundred members 
living in all parts of the world, each bearing a dis- 
tinctly traceable resemblance to its kin. 

Perhaps it will help to a better understanding of 
the matter if we compare the name of a plant to the 
name of a person. For instance, a certain individual 
is named ^' Brown," let us say; this is equivalent to a 
certain plant being named phlox:^' it is the Generic, 
or Family, name. But there are many persons named 
Brown; which is he? He is John Brown perhaps, or 
James Brown; this is the same as the Phlox being 
phlox paniculafa or phlox Drummondii, the names 
being transposed with plants, just as we find per- 
sonal names in the directory. These names — pan- 
iculata and Drum^nondii — are the Species names, 

8 



NOMENCLATURE 



corresponding to the Baptismal names John or 
James, 

But the identity is not yet sufficiently clear, for there 
may be several John or James Browns. Still further 
individualization is necessary — so we say the blonde 
John Brown, or big John Brown — that is we describe 
him in some way that distinguishes him unmistakably. 
And this brings us to the final portion of the name 
— the portion that stands for Variety — and we have 
phlox paniculata, Coquelicct, or phlox Drummondii, 
grandiflora. In the first instance it is the color of the 
flowers that is referred to by the name Coquelicot; in the 
second it is their very large size that is indicated by 
grandiflora. 

You will find Family, Species and Variety names all 
spelled with both capital and small initial letters. 
This is perfectly right though it may look queer, for the 
rule is that capitals are used only when a proper name 
furnishes the root for the plant name — phlox Drum- 
mondii for instance is a Phlox named for Drummond, 
who collected its seed — while small letters are used at all 
other times. Unfortunately many are not as careful 
in this respect as they ought to be and mistakes are 
rather common. 

There are, of course, many more divisions of plants 
than the three here given, but the others are of interest 
and importance to the botanist only. The practical 
gardener is not keen about marshalling great families 
into still greater classes, or clans and cohorts, and these 
again into some still larger group, with a more compre- 

9 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



hensive title — and all things considered, it is probably 
fortunate that this is so. One cannot but feel that the 
garden would suffer if it were otherwise, for the subject 
is absorbing, once it is undertaken — and proportion- 
ately exacting in the matter of time. 

Common or popular names vary in different parts 
of the country so greatly that they are absolutely unre- 
liable. Botanical names, on the contrary, are as fixed 
as the laws of the Medes and Persians; they come 
easy, once you get started; and you can order the 
thing you want from practically any dealer under the 
sun and be sure you are getting it right. 



10 



IV 



THE SOIL 

ONE thing essential to a garden, and without 
which there can hardly be a garden, is proper 
soil. It is not necessary that the beginner should go 
into an exhaustive study of the subject, but a general 
acquaintance with the physical characteristics at least, 
of the various kinds of soil, is imperative. Nothing 
can make up for a lack of understanding of this. 

In the first place soil is classified in three ways: 
first, according to its origin, which means according to 
the rock from which it was derived — whether from 
limestone, sandstone, or from granitic formations, for 
example; second, according to its chemical properties — 
whether calcareous, alkaline and so on; third, accord- 
ing to its physical or mechanical properties — whether 
dry, moist, stony, gravelly, clayey, sandy, or loamy. 
For the present, however, we will overlook the first 
two classifications, giving attention to the third only, 
i. e., the mechanical or physical properties. 

Soil is made up of particles of broken-down rock 
combined with decomposed organic (or living) matter. 
The size of these particles, their relation to each other, 

II 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



the proportion between them and the air and water 
which they retain in the infinitesimal crevices separat- 
ing them — these are the things which govern the phys- 
ical characteristics and the soil texture; these, clearly 
understood, make it possible for anyone to follow a 
line of common-sense reasoning and arrive at the right 
thing to do to put any soil in the condition most favor- 
able for supporting vegetation. For soil may be 
modified almost as one chooses, especially within the 
area one has at his disposal on the average home 
grounds. 

Deep soil means that having a depth of at least 
eight inches from the surface to the less productive 
sub-soil. 

Light soil is a term that has nothing to do with 
the actual weight, but means loose or sandy — open 
textured, the contrary to Heavy Soil. 

Loam is a soil in which the sand, silt and clay are 
properly balanced, making it mellow and friable. This 
is the ideal soil most generally favorable to plant life 
because, being a combination of sand and clay — of 
large and small soil particles — in about equal propor- 
tions, it retains moisture in sufficient quantity to sup- 
ply plant food in solution, and at the same time it is 
properly aerated. Air is an important factor in soil 
and needed by the roots of plants quite as much as 
water. 

The first thing toward actual garden making for 
the beginner to do, therefore,- is to determine which 
side of the balance between sand and clay is over- 

T2 



THE SOIL 



weighted in the soil with which he has to deal, and how 
much it is overweighted; there is a simple test which 
will show, approximately and near enough. 

Go out into the garden or onto the ground where 
the garden is to be, and turn up a spadeful of earth 
there three days after there has been a rainfall. Is 
it powdery and light? Then sand predominates — 
and when sand predominates organic matter is what 
is needed to bind the particles together. 

Is it sticky and Kke putty, retaining the imprint 
of your fingers? Then it lacks sand and has corre- 
spondingly too much clay; so it is sand or some 
loosening agent that is the thing required. 

Ordinary manure is as good as anything you can 
get for supplying the needs of a too sandy soil, while 
deep plowing, which gives the water a chance to escape 
from clay, is often all that an ordinarily heavy soil 
that has lain unworked, requires to make it into a 
friable loam. If this does not Hghten it enough, how- 
ever, a dressing of lime should follow — and sand may 
be worked into it, or coal ashes, or both, if it still 
remains soggy and stiff. 

Begin your garden by doing this work with the 
soil. The weathering of it during the winter will help 
greatly, for the action of the frost and sun has a 
decided physical effect that should be taken advantage 
of whenever possible. With a spring beginning there 
is no time for these to do their portion of the work — 
but with a start made in the fall there are from six 
to seven months ahead, during which the elements 

13 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



may have free rein. Turning up the ground in 
autumn is indeed sometimes recommended, even in 
old and established gardens, though the work should 
not be done at a time when the soil is wet. 

With outdoors looked after, pay particular atten- 
tion to all that the catalogues and garden literature 
have to say about soil. You know what they mean 
when they talk about sandy loam, or clay loam, or 
just plain loam, and you know which yours is. What 
have they to say about your particular kind? 

Never mind if they do not agree with each other 
or with what may be said herein; read them. You 
will find something to think about — you will get 
ideas — you will begin to appreciate how much there 
is of interest about this very common, ordinary dirt 
under our feet that we have always taken for granted. 
Our very lives depend upon it, literally. Isn't it 
worth studying a little bit? 



14 



SEEDS AND SOWING 



AS there can be no successful garden without proper 
knowledge of the soil, neither can there be a 
good garden without some knowledge of seeds. The 
gardener can never hope to know in a lifetime as 
much about these tiny mysteries as a little honest 
attention will teach him about dirt, to be sure; still 
there is much to learn; much that may be learned and 
a little that must. Let us take this last — this neces- 
sity — first into consideration. 

In planting seeds the inexperienced usually err 
on the side of thoroughness, burying them beneath a 
weight of earth that promptly smothers all their aspira- 
tions. There is a certain amount of energy stored 
in a seed — enough to reproduce the plant from which 
it came — but not enough to do more than this; not 
enough to move many times its own weight of earth 
aside in order to do its work. Hopelessly they give 
up the ghost and go the way of all dead things, instead 
of the way of the living — and the gardener grumbles, 
when he has only himself to blame. 

15 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



The earth-covering should never be deeper than 
five times, and usually not more than three times, a 
seed's greatest diameter, when planting out-of-doors. 
In frames or flats (shallow boxes) indoors a covering 
about equal to the seed's own diameter is sufi&cient, 
because in the latter situations the moisture and 
temperature can be artificially regulated. The 
greater depth out-of-doors is simply to insure against 
drying out and chilling the seeds where there is no 
means of governing these factors. 

Whether you are going to plant indoors or out, 
water the soil where the seeds are to go thoroughly the 
day before putting them in. This will bring it to just 
the right degree of mellowness at the time of sowing. 

Seeds go into the ground in drills — that is, in 
continuous rows — ^in hills or clusters, singly, and scat- 
tered Hke grass, according to the plant which they will 
produce. The packet in which each variety comes 
usually has printed upon it the method to be followed 
with the seed enclosed; so that part of it is easy, as these 
directions may be depended upon if the seeds come from 
a recognized first-class seedsman. It is a waste of time 
and money to purchase from any other, by the way. 

If you have seeds to sow in drills, lay a board down 
upon the proposed bed or wherever the seeds are to go, 
for a ruler " ; draw a Kne along its edge with a pointed 
stake for a ''pencil," dragging it deep into the soil or 
lightly along its surface according to the depth of drill 
the diameter of the seed demands; scatter the seeds into 
this little trough and brush the earth that was pushed 

i6 



SEEDS AND SOWING 



out of it, back over them. Then pat it lightly down 
with a float — a "flatiron" contrivance of wood, 6x9 
inches or thereabouts and an inch or two thick, with a 
small piece nailed upon its upper side for a handle. It 
can be made of any old pieces of wood that happen to 
be available. 

Seeds sown singly in rows should have the same 
long drills marked for them, the seeds themselves being 
dropped in at regular intervals instead of continuously. 
Hills are just shallow, saucer-shaped depressions into 
which the requisite number of seeds are dropped, sep- 
arated so that they will not touch each other. The 
earth is drawn over them and as the seedlings shoot 
up, gaining in height, more earth is dra-v^m up from the 
sides imtil the hill is formed which supports the httle 
plants and deepens their roots. 

Scattered or broadcast sowing is Hke the sifting 
of pepper from a shaker, and the earth over the seeds 
is sifted on in the same Hght fashion if any at all is 
used to cover them. Usually seeds that are scattered 
are simply firmed into the ground by pressing with 
the float, the idea being always to bring the grains of 
soil close against the seed on every side, keeping it 
evenly moist by capillary action and allowing no ir- 
regular spaces for air to intervene and shut off this 
moisture. Air is essential, to be sure, but not an 
excess of it on one side and none on the other. 

The beginner is apt, however, to give an excess of 
water rather than of air. Many a garden has been 
drowned imder a simple faith that it is being thor- 

17 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



oughly watered. The amount of water a garden re- 
quires is just enough to maintain the soil at a condi- 
tion of slowly crumbling apart in the hand after being 
squeezed — and this proportion should be constantly 
maintained. Too dry a soil or a soil that is too wet 
even, is not so bad as the alternations between the 
two extremes which careless gardening permits. 

Seeds vary greatly in the time required for germi- 
nation. Some sprout as soon as the earth closes around 
them, seemingly, while others lie dormant for so long 
that the novice at last gives up hope, growing so thor- 
oughly resigned to his disappointment that he forgets 
them completely, when lo! up comes the living green 
one day, quite a year perhaps, from the planting time. 

But happily such procrastination is found only 
among the slow growing plants, with which the begin- 
ner is seldom tempted to experiment — the perennials 
which furnish our trees and shrubs and hardiest vege- 
tation generally. Flowers and vegetables ordinarily 
spring quickly into activity, in a very satisfactory and 
obliging manner, rewarding the beginner's labors usu- 
ally within a fortnight — sometimes much sooner. 

So much for the practical details of seed handling; 
and now for one or two things about seeds themselves 
that ought to be understood — and that are interesting 
to know. 

A seed is the case in which, carefully folded and 
ingeniously packed away, lies an embryonic plant, with 
the food necessary to sustain it for a certain period of 
its life above ground. In some seeds this plant is 

i8 




The necessary equipment for raising plants from 
seed: ; consists of shallow boxes called fiats, a 
: sieve: for sifting the soil and a watering can with 
a fine rose — not forgetting the chief essential, a 
light sandy loam 



The man who has had a garden for two or three 
years will tell you that few things are so con- 
ducive to rapid and effective work as some sort 
of a tool house where everything may be kept 
in its place 



SEEDS AND SOWING 



developed enough for microscopic dissection to reveal 
it plainly, in others it is very rudimentary. 

Usually it has two plump divisions called cotyle- 
dons — four syllables, cot-y-le-dons, with the accent on 
the first; there are, however, plants which have more or 
only one, but they will come later; the cotyledons, if 
they push their way up through the earth — some do 
not — spread apart and look to us like leaves. Conse- 
quently we usually speak of them as the first or seed 
leaves, although they aren't leaves at all. It is be- 
tween them and protected by them that the actual 
growing point of the plant waits — the plumule or true 
leaf-bud whence the real plant is to arise, with the 
plant's true leaves. 

The cotyledons are only caretakers — the nurse- 
maids of the baby plant itself — which feed and guard it 
until it has grown big enough to draw its own susten- 
ance, through its true leaves and the little roots that 
have been keeping pace underground with the leaves' 
growth, from the elements about. Until a true leaf is 
formed, every plant lives on the food stored away with 
it in the seed, no matter how miscroscopic that seed 
may be. 

Not until the true leaves have developed, generally 
speaking, are seedlings strong enough to bear handling 
and transplanting. Some of your seed packets will tell 
you to transplant when the third leaf appears, or to 
thin out when the true leaves appear, which means of 
course the third leaf after the cotyledons in the first 
instance, the first pair of leaves in the second — for 

19 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



sometimes the true leaves appear in pairs, opposite on 
their stalk, while others come out singly, one on one 
side, the next on the other. Always follow such 
directions carefully and do not anticipate, nor wait 
beyond, the stipulated time. 

Once you have watched a seedHng — any seedlihg 
- — through its rudimentary growth from funny, round 
or oval, sturdy little cotyledons to two or three true 
leaves and noted the marked difference in the appear- - 
ance of the latter from the former, you will wonder 
why you never noticed it before — if you have not. 
Seed germination is one of the most interesting things 
in this very interesting world, though it is common — 
almost as common as the dirt» 



20 



VI 



SEEDLINGS AND TRANSPLANTING 

SEEDLINGS are little plants just from the seed, 
raised indoors or out, v/herever convenient. 
Their removal to better places — the process of trans- 
planting — is a part of gardening extremely important 
for the garden beginner to understand, inasmuch as he 
may often make almost his entire garden this v/ay, in 
the first season, buying seedhngs from a florist if he has 
been late in making a start with garden operations. 

The soil into which seedlings are to be moved from 
their seed bed should be in about the same condition, 
as regards moisture, as the soil in which seeds are 
sown — that is, as moist as a previous day's watering 
will make it. And the soil from which they are taken 
will, of course, be about the same, and v/ill yield their 
roots readily, without tearing. 

At this stage of operations comes in the dihhle — 
a most useful affair which, thrust an inch or so into 
the earth half an inch from the seedhng, is twisted and 
worked and tilted this way and that gently until the 
soil is loosened enough to let the little plant be picked 
lightly from it. For very tiny plantlets a toothpick 

21 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



makes as good a dibble as may be had, but there are 
occasions when a section of blroom handle, sharpened 
like a long pointed pencil, is not a bit too big. A Kttle 
practice with the tool will quickly teach you the size 
appropriate for any particular plant. 

Lift the seedHng by taking one of its leaves care- 
fully between the soft ball of the thumb and index 
finger — you will be surprised at the ease with which you 
will handle mere atoms of plants this way — not touch- 
ing the body of the plant at all, nor allowing its roots 
to come in contact with anything. Thrust the dibble 
into the earth at the spot the plant is to occupy, 
making a hole as deep or a little deeper than its 
longest root; lower the seedHng into this hole until 
it is as deep as it originally grew, then thrust the 
dibble down once more, half an inch from it this 
time, and by tilting the handle over towards it gently 
press earth against and around its roots. If the hole 
seems insufficiently filled after this, leaving the plant 
unsteady and loosely set, thrust the dibble down at 
another spot, or lay its point fiat onto the soil along- 
side the plant's stem and press down until the earth 
falls into place, filling the hole completely. Do not 
pack the dirt, but make it firm and water moderately. 

Bear in mind that the plant which is frequently 
transplanted endures the operation with much more 
grace than one which is left long in one place. Fre- 
quent transplanting tends to the development of a 
more compact root system which will be made up of 
many fine and hair-like short feeding roots instead 

22 



SEEDLINGS AND TRANSPLANTING 



of the long, tenacious growth which the undisturbed 
plant is able to put forth — and naturally the former 
are less Kable to injury and breakage when lifted 
than the latter. 

There are probably no plants which cannot be 
transplanted by a skilled operator, but there are imny 
which certainly will not tolerate the treatment of any 
but an expert — and some that even the expert shrinks 
from handling. Usually these are species or varieties 
which send straight down, deep into the earth, a long, 
trunk-Kke root which is called a tap-root. This 
simply will not yield to removal without breakage. 

Whenever the instructions on a seed packet direct 
that the seed be sown where it is wanted in the garden, 
and say nothing about transplanting, it is very likely 
that the plant is one of those which puts forth such a 
root — and the direction should be Kterally followed, 
else there will be failure. 

Good-sized, growing plants with a mass of roots 
large enough to need some earth removed to make 
room to set them, may be firmed into place by filling 
with water, gently poured, a depression left around 
their crown. After this has settled, the rest of the 
earth is thrown into place — and thus the whole 
operation is accomphshed with comparatively no 
violence or shock to even the tenderest rootlets. 



23 



VII 



PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 

WHEN plants have reached maturity or approach 
it, whether flower, fruit or vegetable, watch 
them closely and do not withdraw constant care from 
them. Volumes written about them could not cover, 
comprehensively, all their little queernesses and strange 
freaks. Each one seems almost a problem by itself, 
sprung up from the ground to show some new phase 
of Mother Nature's ingenuity, and each gardener must 
learn by his own experience how to meet the par- 
ticular emergencies arising from the combination of 
soil, weather and plant with which he has to deal. 

But while maturing plants differ in their require- 
ments greatly and each must be studied by itself, there 
is one thing that is appreciated by all alike, and that is 
tillage. The man with the hoe, and the rake, and the 
cultivator, is the being they hail as friend, be sure of 
that. Indeed this stirring of the soil is so great a bene- 
fit that one of the most ancient garden maxims says 
tillage is manure." 

It is not alone to keep the weeds down, however, 
that this stirring of the surface must be kept up, 
surprising as it may seem and contrary to popular 

24 



A flat of seedlings in the proper condition for 
transplanting. They should not be handled until 
they have developed true leaves 




If you sow seeds indoors in flats you will be 
able to give them the regular attention they 
require and, incidentally, you will not miss the 
keen enjoyment of seeing them come up through 
the soil and develop 



If a flat of seedlings ready to transplant is watered 
the day before they are to be moved the soil will 
be in the best condition for this work. The soil 
in the flats or pots to which the seedlings are 
moved should be in the same condition as regards 
moisture 



PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 



notions. Incidentally it does prevent them from 
gaining a foothold of course, but its great merit lies in 
its action on the soil itself. 

Moisture is carried through soil by capillary attrac- 
tion. When rain or dew falls on the ground it penetrates 
to plant roots by means of this action, going down and 
down until it is equalized in the soil or finds a way 
through into still deeper fissures and drains out into 
rivers or sp ings. 

With the coming of fair weather after a rain, how- 
ever, this downward action is immediately reversed 
on the surface, where the water particles first yield 
themselves to the air and heat of the sun and pass from 
the ground completely. Gradually the pull upward 
of this same capillary force drav^s the fluid from deeper 
down until all that the thirsty earth has absorbed is 
relentlessly taken from it and scattered in the air again 
as vapor. 

But tillage is the interrupter of this robbery of the 
sun. It interposes a little, thin blanket of soil particles 
which are too widely separated from each other for 
capillary puU to be efficacious, and the soil beneath it is 
thus enabled to retain the precious drops for a much 
longer period, even in decided drought. 

Then, too, this finely pulverized, blanketing soil 
absorbs moisture more readily than a hard-baked, 
unstirred surface, and even the light precipitation of 
dew, night after night, is greedily drunk by it. 

So the importance of tilling rests not in its merit 
as a weed eradicator, you see. But happily it does 

25 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



eradicate them thoroughly — for weeds are gluttons and 
by virtue of this spirit in them are able to take the best 
of everything from a piece of ground, starving out its 
rightful tenants. 

Go over a garden — or a bed, or whatever you are 
tending — at least twice a week with this gentle surface 
"scratching." That is all that it need amount to, 
really; the stirring need not be deep — an inch of loose 
soil is enough — but it must be frequent, and only heavy 
rain should be allowed to interfere with the semi- 
weekly repetition of it. 

For small surfaces one of the small hand weeders 
is excellent. For larger spaces a hand cultivator, made 
purposely for tilling and used like a hoe, is better. 
There is, too, a wheel-hoe, which is excellent in gar- 
den rows, though it is not adapted to every sort of 
location as the hand cultivator is. 

Deeper stirring of the ground has more marked 
physical effects on the soil, hastening chemical activities 
and making the stores of plant food available. Very 
often soil contains all the elements necessary to support 
plant life richly, but not in such form that the plants 
can consume them. Therefore they go hungry in the 
midst of plenty, even as a man might in the midst of 
quantities of those elements which science has found 
out compose man — if they were not present in forms 
available to his teeth, appetite and digestive appa- 
ratus. 

Remember always, however, that deep tillage is not 
a conserver of moisture. On the contrary it lightens 

26 



PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 



stiff and heavy soils by draining them. Thus they be- 
come "deeper," warmer, finer and consequently more 
easily penetrated by the tiny hairlike rootlets that are 
the actual feeders. 

Plants growing as specimens — that is shrubs or 
flowers set by themselves and not in a bed or border — 
need this same treatment and respond to it with grati- 
tude almost as marked as the humbler garden stuff 
shows. Even trees appreciate the loosening of the 
earth around their trunks. Indoor pot plants, too, 
should be included. In fact one should cultivate the 
habit of disturbing the surface soil around practically 
everything that grows, for tillage is a requisite first, 
last, and all the time, to which everything else is sec- 
ondary. 



27 



VIII 



PRUNING 

SOUND knowledge of a plant's manner of growth 
should precede any attempt to direct that growth 
by pruning or otherwise training it, juet as sound knowl- 
edge of anatomy must precede the successful surgeon's 
work on the human subject. The intelligent direction 
of the tiny plant's development which such knowledge 
makes possible, will make pruning unnecessary when 
the esedling has matured into a tree — and this is a con- 
summation devoutly to be wished. 

We are accustomed to think and speak of buds as 
embryonic flowers, but they are a great deal more than 
that. There are flower buds, leaf buds, and mixed 
buds — that is, flower-and-leaf buds — and every branch 
and limb of the sturdiest tree, and even the tree itself, 
has had its beginning in a bud. They are the source 
of all growth after a plant is out of the seed. Indeed 
the little plant springs from the seed, broadly speaking, 
by means of its terminal bud. Each year its growth 
proceeds upward by the formation, during the summer, 
of another terminal bud which crowns the season's 
work, and opens into leaves, possibly flowers, and a 
further growth of stem the succeeding year. 

28 



PRUNING 



On either side of this main stem at regular intervals, 
lateral buds are formed, from which, in due season, 
branches develop. As these commonly rise between 
the leaf stalks and the main stems — that is, in the axils 
fo the leaves — they are called axillary buds. They 
are, however, the terminal buds of those branches which 
ultimately spring from them; so growth is actually 
always carried on by a terminal bud. 

This leaves a lot of apparently useless buds along 
every stem under each leaf stalk, for a very small per- 
centage of these develop and grow into shoots; and of 
those that do, many die quickly, choked out in one way 
or another — else there would be as many branches in 
any given season as there were leaves the season before. 
But these seemingly useless buds are Nature's wonder- 
ful reserve, held back for weeks or months or perhaps 
years, as the case may be, yet always in readiness to 
spring to the rescue when the plant's normal leaf 
surface is taken away, either by accident or design. 

For this leaf surface cannot be reduced; the leaves, 
which spread to the light and air certain substances 
which the roots have taken from the ground, are as 
necessary to the plant's life as its roots, and the propor- 
tion of leaf surface to root surface must be maintained. 
With wonderful intelligence and patience therefore they 
wait, these reserve buds, until injury comes to the ter- 
minal bud; then they fairly leap into activity in their 
haste to supply the loss. The strongest gain the lead 
and keep it usually, and thus, the original stem having 
ceased its growth, those branches which spring from the 

29 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



strongest buds become, in their turn, leaders. Some- 
times there are several of these, sometimes only one. 

There is a third kind of bud which some trees and 
shrubs produce in great abundance, following injury. 
These, rising from anywhere on old branches or out of 
the trunk itself, are called adventitious buds. They 
simply supplement the work of the dormant axillary 
buds, and hasten foliage renewal when large limbs have 
been sacrificed and there has consequently been great 
loss. 

Generally speaking the most virile strength of any 
branch is nearest its tip. Growth proceeds at the apex, 
with branching growths usually springing from the 
axillary buds nearest the apex — the upper buds these are 
called. Removing the terminal bud stimulates the 
growth of these upper axillary buds — or the branches 
which these have formed — ^because the supply of nour- 
ishment to that particular stem has then to be divided 
between only two buds, while before it supplied three. 
It is seldom, however, that the removal of the terminal 
bud alone will induce branching further down a stem — 
otherwise that form of growth characterized as bushy — 
though it may sometimes. 

The severe cutting back of privet in hedges is an 
excellent example of what must be done to secure dense 
branching low down on a plant; and it is also an ex- 
cellent example of what will happen to a plant that is 
pruned to excess. Privet branches are opposite each 
other always, and two will appear immediately below 
where a stalk is cut, while a third, lower down, will very 

30 



PRUNING 



often develop, or even another pair. To secure these 
branches near the ground it is therefore necessary to cut 
it first to within a few inches of the ground, and then to 
cut down the shoots which come in consequence of this 
cut, close to the parent stem, and so on. This forces the 
growth of stiff, stocky plants — ^just what one does not 
want in flowering shrubs, though it is highly desirable 
in a hedge. 

Removing the first pair of axillary buds below the 
terminal bud will start the next lower pair into growth 
usually, while the removal of buds or small branches all 
down along a stem will stimulate the growth at its apex. 
In this way a plant's general growth may be directed 
towards a certain ideal form from its infancy, with never 
a bit of w'aste in its vitality or in the time required to 
arrive at the ideal. 

Never be in a hurry to prune branches from any- 
thing, either old or new, until much experience has been 
your teacher; but when spring warmth awakens sleep- 
ing buds and they bestir themselves and come forth, 
if their intentions do not seem to be in accord with the 
plant's best form and its best interest, wipe them gently 
out of existence with a gloved thumb — if the naked 
thumb is too tender. Nowhere is the struggle for 
existence keener and fiercer than in the vegetable king- 
dom. Always aim to reduce this struggle as much as 
possible, as early as possible — to nip it in the bud, 
literally. 

This is the chief reason for pruning, ordinarily; 
the principle of it is always to relieve the plant by 

31 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



reducing this struggle. For, of course, when its best 
efforts are constantly strained to the utmost in just 
keeping alive, it cannot produce flowers nor fruits in 
abundance, nor of a very high quality. When there are 
too many branches, or many that are old and weak, 
none can be as strong and leafy as they should, for all 
are insufficiently nourished; it is a desperate struggle 
for life between them constantly. 

A little pruning every year is the ideal. The de- 
struction of an ambitious shoot as soon as it starts — the 
destruction of it as a bud — is far easier on the tree, and 
the gardener too, than the laborious task of sawing 
through a good sized limb after it has been allowed 
several years in which to grow. 

But when large limbs must be cut away, the loss 
to the tree is far less and the operation is less likely to 
be disastrous if the work is properly done. The right 
way is simple enough, but everywhere wrong ways 
are in evidence, and for one person who understands 
such pruning it seems there must be a score who 
do not. 

All large limbs should be cut as close to the main 
trunk from which they rise as it is possible to lay a saw, 
and the cut which severs them must always be parallel 
with the main trunk and not at right angles to the branch 
which is being taken away. No way hut this is right, 
no matter who practices it! 

In the case of large and heavy limbs — which ought 
never to be cut down unless there is an absolutely 
imperative reason — it is best to remove the limb first 

32 




One of the chief reasons for pruning is to induce lower 
growth. This is well shown in the privet hedge, which must 
be cut back nearly to the ground and gradually allowed 
to attain height with a bushy growth 




A branch of privet, showing how the cutting of a 
stalk induces the growth of two branches opposite 
each other below the cut 



PRUNING 



with two preliminary cuts, as shown in the diagram, 
trimming the stub down to the proper level of the trunk 
afterwards. The first of these two cuts is made from 
the under side of the limb up, and about five or six 
inches away from the trunk from which the limb rises; 
this cut should extend a little more than halfway through 
the limb. Then, half an inch nearer the tree trunk, the 
second cut is made, from the upper side of the limb 
down. The branch will fall to the ground without 
splintering or tearing in the least as this cut is completed. 
Then the saw is 
laid flat against 
the main trunk as 
before directed, 
and the stub taken 
off. This levels 
the surface and 
prepares for the 
healing process 
which Nature im- 
mediately takes The Right Way to Cut off a Heavy 
up. Branch. 
Never leave 

any stub extending out from the trunk or the trunk 
branch, for the bark of the tree cannot draw together 
over such a stub, and the stub is bound therefore to 
die, then to rot away, and then to carry decay straight 
down into the heart of the tree. The drawing illus- 
trates this. 

Shoots and small branches should be removed just 

33 




THE GARDEN PRIMER 




a b c d 

a — Right way; b — Wrong way, showing a sti*b that bark 
cannot cover; c — Section showing rise of branch; d — 
Channel of decay to heart of tree along branch. 



above a bud, as near to it as possible and yet far 
enough away to avoid injuring it. In plants on which 
the buds alternate, an outward setting bud should 

be the one left at 
the top of a pruned 
branch. This 
assures an out- 
ward growing 
new shoot and an 
open center, which 
is the ideal form 
to promote 
healthy and lux- 

„ . „ . uriant growth. 

Pruning Twigs. ° 

The Right Too Long Too Close Therearetwo 
Way. above Bud to Bud. things regarding 




34 



PRUNING 



the form which growth takes that should be remem- 
bered when pruning. One, applying to trees especially, 
is that leading branches must never be allowed to spring 
from the same point on the trunk — or from opposite 
the same point is perhaps a clearer way to put it — while 
the other, applicable to every sort of plant, is that, 
generally speaking, the outer shoots or branches should 
be left and the inner ones cut away. 

In the first instance the tree is weakened structur- 
ally and will split more readily under stress of wind or 
ice — or fruit — when its branches diverge at just the same 
level, forming a sharp crotch or Y; in the second, a 
plant becomes choked and top-heavy if inner growth is 
constantly encouraged, and the branches suffer injury 
from rubbing against each other. 

Next in importance to these, to be equally carefully 
remembered, is the fact that every tree or shrub or vine 
has its own little personal peculiarity about flowers 
and the manner of producing them — and produces them 
only on v/ood of a certain age — sometimes one year old, 
sometimes two, sometimes still more. So it is always 
necessary to know the peculiarity of any plant in question 
in this respect, before venturing to lop off a branch, else 
an entire season's product may be destroyed. 

Of fruit trees, the apple and pear bear on spurs" 
of old wood that may be anywhere along the branches, 
but peaches are always borne on wood of the previous 
season's growth. Trimming off the annual shoots will 
therefore sacrifice the fruit of the latter but not of the 
former, while "heading in" — that is removing the ends 

35 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



of the branches with their growing terminal buds, — 
being a process that encourages the growth of lateral 
buds (that are waiting for just this to happen) into 
shoots or young branches, of course increases the amount 
of new, therefore of fruit-producing, wood. 

Among flowering shrubs the lilac and hydrangea 
afford much the same contrast as the apple and peach 
among fruit trees. Hydrangeas bloom on wood of the 
season's growth, lilac on wood of the pre\dous season. 
The former may therefore be pruned very early in the 
spring without danger of destroying the blossoms, but 
the latter should only be gone over with the knife imme- 
diately after flowering. This gives the plants a chance 
to grow branches for the next season and to stov/ them 
with flower buds before frost interferes. 

Always keep in mind that pruning at the ends of 
branches stimulates excessive growth of shoots, up to a 
certain point — of course it is possible to overdo the mat- 
ter and kill a plant altogether by never giving it an 
opportunity to recover from its many wounds — and 
that the way to thin shrubs therefore, is to look beyond 
the branches that are too numerous down to the stalk 
whence they spring, and cut them off at their very 
beginnings or cut out the stalk at the ground. Other- 
wise they will produce shoots themselves, and double 
the number that is choking the bush, instead of reduc- 
ing it. 

But the final word is always "restraint." Dead 
wood and weak wood should be cut from shrubs, super- 
fluous branches which crowd a tree should be taken 



36 




An example of both good and bad pruning. Branches 
have been cut off close to the trunk as they should be, 
but so many have been taken near one point that the tree 
as a fruit tree is headed too high 




A splendid specimen of hydrangea which by judicious 
pruning has been developed into a fairly large tree 



PRUNING 



away — ^but only a little should ever need doing at any 
one time or season. And only a little will need to be 
done at one time, if that little is attended to as each year 
brings it. 

It is not of course possible to give here a complete 
list of trees and shrubs, with their peculiarities in regard 
to bloom, but some of the most commonly planted are 
included below, with directions as to time for pruning. 

FRUITS 

Apple. Fruit borne on old spurs — prune in 
spring, or after the fruit is gathered. 

Pear. Fruit borne on old spurs — prune sparingly 
in spring, or after the fruit is gathered. 

Plum. Fruit mostly on spurs, but in some varie- 
ties on both spurs and annual growth — prune in spring. 

Cherry. Similar to plum — prune in spring or 
after harvest. 

Peach. Fruit borne near base of previous year's 
shoots — ^prune after harvest. 

Blackberry. Fruit borne on canes of previous 
season's growth — cut old canes out after fruiting, 
cut young canes back as soon as two feet high — cut 
laterals on these sparingly at tip in spring, or not at all. 

Raspberry. Same as blackberry; spring pruning 
is only to thin the fruit; all cutting back should be 
done the previous season. 

Currant. Fruit borne on both old and young 
wood — the best on base of i year shoots springing 
from I year spurs ; have no wood over three years old. 

Grapes. Borne on wood of present season which 

37 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



rises from wood of previous season; fall or winter 
pruning is best. 

FLOWERING SHRUBS 

Roses. Flowers borne on new wood — prune out 
old wood and weak shoots after flowering — or cut back 
before life shows in spring from % to % oi bush. 

Forsythia, Flowers borne on old wood — prune 
immediately after flowering. 

Hibiscus. On the season's shoots — prune fall or 
early spring. 

Honeysuckle. See Lonicera. 

Hydrangea. Borne on the season's shoots — 
prune fall or early spring. 

Lilac. See Syringa. 

Lonicera. Usually on season's shoots — safest to 
prune immediately after flowering however, as some 
varieties bloom very early. 

Philadelphus. (Commonly called Syringa.) 
Borne on old wood — prune immediately after flow- 
ering. 

Spircea. (Shrubby varieties.) On old wood — 
prune sparingly after flowering. 

Syringa. On last year's wood — ^prune imme- 
diately after flowering. 

Viburnum. On old wood — prune after flowering. 

Weigela. On old wood — prune after flowering. 

Clematis. On season's shoots — cut down in 
winter or early spring. 

Evergreen hedges. Prune in June, trimming just 
enough to keep the chosen form. 

38 



IX 



GARDEN PESTS 

THE gardener's hereditary enemies are of two sorts: 
the insects, which feed upon leaf and flower, 
fruit and plant juices; and the fungi. The former 
work in the open, as it were, and are not there- 
fore quite so difHcult to deal with as the latter, 
though they are provokingly persistent. The fungi 
are subtle and more insidious, the spores which pro- 
duce them being invisible and therefore able to estab- 
lish themselves in spite of the greatest watchfulness 
directed against them. With these, prevention is the 
only **cure"; once a plant falls a victim to the disease 
which they produce, it is usually fatally stricken. 
Hence they are more to be dreaded than insects, in a 
way, and fungicides should be constantly used. 

It is absolutely useless to undertake the battle 
against insect hordes without first knowing definitely 
what kind of an army it is that has invaded. For 
insects that live upon plants are divided into tw^o great 
classes, according to their method of feeding ; the man- 
dibulate or biting insects, and the haustellate or suck- 
ing insects. A campaign to rout them must positively 

39 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 




Mouth Parts of 
the Larva from 
Below. 



be laid out according to their position under this classi- 
fication. 

The essential thing to be learned therefore about 
any small depredator, right at the start, is whether he 
is chewing pieces out of the plant which he has chosen 
and actually consuming its solid substance, or whether 
he is extracting its juices. This is not difficult to find 

out. The biting creatures 
have big, strong mandibles 
which are plainly visible if the 
insect is watched quietly for a 
few minutes; and of course 
these fellows leave telltale 
holes behind them where they 
have helped themselves in 
dining. 

Many beetles, all true 
locusts, weevils, grasshoppers, 
slugs and most larval forms — 
the latter being what we com- 
monly designate as worms, 
grubs or maggots — are in this 
class. These may all be de- 
stroyed therefore by what are 
called direct poisons — that is, 
poisons applied to the plant, 
hence swallowed by the insect. 

All the arsenicals or compounds of arsenic are di- 
rect poisons — decidedly. They must be very carefully 
handled because they are so direct — such deadly poison. 

40 




True Beetle. Chewing 
or M a n d i b u I a t e. 
Head of Rose 
Chafer. 



GARDEN PESTS 




Head of Clover- 
leaf Weevil. 



But they are applied to the plants 
in such dilute forms that no danger 
attends their use, after they are on. 
It is before they are used that 
they are dangerous, the danger 
lying in not taking every precau- 
tion with them in the concentrated 
state. Be sure that they are la- 
belled conspicuously "poison" and 
that they are put and kept care- 
fully out of the reach of little 



folks and careless folks. 

The Department of Agricul- 
ture assures us that the poison 
disappears almost completely 
from the plants in from 20 to 25 
days, and that even if it did not, 
it would be impossible to con- 
sume enough of the fruit or 
vegetable to get a really poison- 
ous dose. Even if an entire 
apple, core and all, were eaten, 
it would be 





Head of larva, 
Clover-leaf 
Weevil. 



Jaws of larva, 
Clover-leaf 
Weevil. 



necessary to 
devour sever- 
al barrels of the fruit at a single 
sitting, to make the poison effect- 
ive. Nevertheless if one is nerv- 
ous about the chance of consum- 
ing any poison at all, it is better 



41 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



to use something else on plants that are soon to be 
eaten. 

The powder made from the roots of white helle- 
bore is the best substitute for an arsenical insecticide. 
It poisons insects in the same way that the arsenicals 
do but is less dangerous to man, although it is distinctly 
poisonous and will cause death if enough of it is taken. 

In some instances 
poisonous gases or 
fumes are prefer- 
able to any direct 
application, but 
these are special 
cases. 

The haustel- 
late insects are 
provided with a 
haustellum or pro- 
boscis — a sucking 
beak — which they 
Sucking or Haustellate. Head of thrust down into 
Aphid— a Green Pea Louse. the soft inner tis- 

sues of a plant, 

whence they extract the juice. All of the true bugs 
belong in this class, all of the scale insects, and the plant 
lice or aphids. The injury which they do is not so imme- 
diately noticeable as that done by the mandibulates, but 
it is quite as serious. Indeed, because it is not so 
apparent it may very easily be much more serious, be- 
cause undiscovered for a time. 




42 



GARDEN PESTS 



This ■ class are less easily handled too than the 
greedy, chewing, devouring kind, because poisons on 
the plant do not affect them in the least. The only 
sure death to them is contact poison — which means 
that every insect must actually be located and treated. 
Poisonous fumes are available sometimes, but ordi- 
narily a spray is the accepted method of dealing with 
them — a spray applied 
so thoroughly that every 
twig and leaf and branch 
is reached, on every 
side. Halfway measures 
are time wasted. 

Not all of the insects 
that must be dealt with 

are obliginej enough to _ _ ~ ~ ~ 

, ^ The True Bug. Head of 

live m the open, or squash Bug. Haustellate 
above ground. Root Class, 
maggots, root lice and 

grubs work underground, hence are classified as 
subterranean; borers keep within the bark or 
wood of a plant or in its stem, gall insects conceal 
themselves within the galls which their presence 
has caused, and leaf miners "mine" the leaves. All of 
these are termed internal feeders; and the destruction 
of both these classes of concealed insects requires 
special methods, although they do of course belong to 
one or the other of the two great divisions first explained. 
Borers are mandibulate, also grubs and "miners;" 
some form of louse is generally responsible for the f orma- 

43 




THE GARDEN PRIMER 



tion of galls, and lice always belong to the haustellate 
class; but whichever the class, they must be suffocated 
usually when they are subterranean or internal feeders. 

Spraying, or what the experts call the wet method 
of applying insecticides, is not a difficult undertaking 
but it demands suitable apparatus. It is the one way 
of making applications thorough. The dry method — 
application of poison in powder form — is useful in the 
case of low growing plants sometimes, but is advisable 
only when they are not to be used for food in the near 
future. A third method of destruction is the use of 
poisoned bait; this is used for cutworms and similar 
insects that advance along the ground, like the grass- 
hopper or locust. 

The size of a place and the consequent amount of 
work to be done will of course determine the kind of 
apparatus to be provided. There are many kinds of 
small hand sprayers, as good a one as any being a small 
brass or tin affair called an atomizer spray syringe. 
This has a tank holding a quart of fluid ; for use around 
a small garden it is very satisfactory because it may be 
turned in any position without spilling its contents. 
Thus leaves may be reached from underneath as readily 
as from above. 

A bucket pump is of course better where there are 
many shrubs or bushes; the ideal, suitable for every- 
thing, is a spray outfit on wheels that may be moved to 
any part of the grounds easily. And then there is a 
knapsack spray which may be carried on the shoulders 
of the operator; this is very much liked by some. 



44 



GARDEN PESTS 



Many insecticides require to be constantly agitated 
to keep the mixture in proper condition, and the best 
pumps are therefore equipped with an arrangement 
for doing this, called an agitator. Some solutions re- 
quire special nozzles; these are indicated in the list. 

Powders are applied more evenly perhaps with a 
powder gun or bellows, but a powder duster, which is 
really nothing but a tin pail with a cover, perforated all 
over the bottom like a huge saltshaker, is usually per- 
fectly satisfactory. A bag of coarse and open cloth, 
like scrim, is also practical, though this does not insure 
sprinkling the powder only down upon the plant, as 
the tin shaker does. 

The time of applying insecticides is of the greatest 
importance, neglect of even two or three days being 
sufficient to make all the work futile sometimes. Re- 
member always that it has been planned with the 
greatest care and after years of scientific investigation 
and patient study, to meet certain periods in the life 
cycle of the insect in question, which may be vulnerable 
only at such period. Too soon or too late, either one 
therefore, will not do. Do the work just at the time 
specified, when it is actually specified. If the direc- 
tions say when the petals fall," that is the time; if they 
say "four days after the petals have fallen," that is the 
time. 

Consult the Spraying Table when you wish 
to know what to do with a certain kind of tree; 
consult the Spraying Calendar for the work of each 
month. 



45 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



INSECTICIDES 
Direct Poisons for Chewing or Biting Insects 

1. Arsenite of Copper, Green Arsenoid or Green Arsenite 

(a) Strong Mixture: i ounce to 6 gallons of 

water. Use this only on very strong and 
hardy vegetation such as potato plants, 
or for insects very hard to kill, such as 
the cankerworm. 

(b) Medium Mixture: i ounce to 9 gallons of 

water. Use this for all general spraying; 
do not use on extremely delicate and ten- 
der plants. 

(c) Dilute Mixture: i ounce to 15 gallons of 

water. Use this on peach, apricot, 
tender plums and all tender vegetation. 

Mix the poison into a thin paste and add 
twice as much quicklime as poison — more 
will do no harm, even up to three times as 
much. The lime takes up the * ' free arsenic ' ' 
which is the substance that scalds the plants. 
After mixing, strain into the spray tank, 
rinsing and pulverizing all of the solid 
matter through the strainer thoroughly; 
then add the necessary amount of water. 
This is advised instead of Paris Green. 



46 



GARDEN PESTS 



2. Arsenate of Lead 

(known in the trade as Disparene). 
Formula: 3 ounces of crystallized Arsenate of 
Soda. 

7 ounces of crystallized Acetate of 

Lead. 
10 gallons of water. 

Dissolve the crystals, each kind separately, 
in a small amount of water — the lead will 
dissolve more readily if the water is warmed 
— unite them, and reduce by adding the 
remainder of the water. A milky mixture 
will result; straining is not necessary if the 
poison is thoroughly dissolved and thor- 
oughly stirred with the water. 

A prepared paste or dust of this combina- 
tion may be purchased but it is better to 
mix as needed. Keep always the propor- 
tion of I ounce of poison to i gallon of water. 
It may be used stronger without harming 
the plants, but this is a safe general strength, 
effective and not risky. 

Arsenate of Lead remains suspended in 
water better than any other poison, is less 
likely to burn foliage, and sticks to all that 
the spray reaches. The filmy coating which 
it deposits shows consequently just what 
has been , sprayed. Of all the arsenicals 
it is the safest for tender foliage; and it may 
be combined with Bordeaux Mixture, using 
47 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



the latter in place of the water, and making 
one spraying do the work of two, when the 
Bordeaux is required. 

3. Hellebore 

(non-poisonous to man). 

Use I ounce to i gallon of water, as a 
spray. For use dry, mix i part with 5 to lo 
parts of flour and let stand in a closely 
covered vessel for twenty- four hours be- 
fore using. At the end of that time the 
flour will be as efflcacious a poison as the 
pure hellebore. Sprinkle on leaves, on 
under sides as well as upper, while the dew 
is still on the plants or after wetting by rain 
or a watering pot. 

Contact Poisons for Sucking Insects 

4. Kerosene Emulsion 

Soap Formula: J pound of hard soap (i quart of 
soft). 

2 gallons of kerosene. 
I gallon of rain water ("break'* 
hard water with lye). 

Dissolve the soap in the water by boiling. 
Take from the fire and add to the kerosene 
immediately, while boiling hot, churning the 
mixture violently by pumping it back upon 
itself through an open nozzle throwing a 



GARDEN PESTS 



strong stream. Five minutes or less of this 
violent churning will bring it to the emulsion 
stage, when it will have increased in bulk 
one- third to one-half and be as thick as rich 
cream. This will keep indefinitely as 
stock. 

Milk Formula: 2 gallons of kerosene. 

I gallon of sour milk. 

Unite these without heating, and churn 
with pump. Three to five minutes are 
necessary to make the emulsion, the change 
coming very suddenly when it does come. 
The mixture becomes much thicker than 
the soap emulsion. It should be prepared 
only as needed, for it will not keep unless 
sealed in airtight jars. 

Winter Spray 

{a) Dilute i part of stock with 5 parts of water 
for use on apple and pear trees. 

(li) Dilute I part of stock with 7 parts of water 
for use on peach and plum trees. 

{c) Dilute I part of stock with 8 parts of water 
for use on apricot trees. 

Summer Spray 

{d) Dilute I part of stock with 10 parts of water 
for apple and pear trees. 

49 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



(e) Dilute i part of stock with 15 parts of water 
for use on plum, peach, apricot and other 
tender foliage. 

The emulsion may be used undiluted in 
winter, to destroy scale on trunks and large 
branches of trees that are badly infested. 
It cannot be sprayed however, but must be 
applied with a brush or sponge and this 
should only be done when a tree is in a 
very bad state. 
Never use the emulsion any stronger than 
^ directed, for it is extremely dangerous to 
a tree unless handled with caution. Always 
follow the table as to time of using it also. 
The weakest solution is quite strong enough 
for any plant infested with plant lice; such 
soft-bodied insects succumb easily anyway. 
It is simply a matter of reaching them 
all. 

5. Lime, Sulphur and Salt Wash 

Formula : 3 pounds of unslaked lime. 

2 pounds of sulphur (flowers). 
I J pounds of salt. 

3 gallons of water. 

Slake the lime in a small quantity of the 
water; mix the sulphur into a stiff paste and 
add at once to the slaking lime; add the 
salt to the water, then the lime and sulphur 
50 



GARDEN PESTS 



and boil all together, in an iron vessel, for 
from two to three hours. Dilute after boil- 
ing until the total amount of mixture mea- 
sures 6 gallons, and apply at once, while hot. 
This is a valuable fungicide as well as an 
insecticide. 

It should be strained into the spray tank 
through an iron screen or strainer, and 
should be agitated continually while being 
used. It must never be applied to plants 
when they are in leaf; it is a winter spray 
only, to be used on dormant vegetation. 

6. Soap Wash 

Formula: 2 pounds of whale oil soap (get a 
potash soap). 
I gallon of water. 

Dissolve the soap in the water by heating 
and apply the spray hot, undiluted, in 
spring before growth starts, for scale insects. 
Dilute I part with 5 parts of water for sum- 
mer use against plant lice. 

Common laundry or Ivory soap, either 
one, will make an effective summer wash for 
soft-bodied aphids, J of a cake to 4 gallons 
of hot water being a good proportion. 
Use hot. 

SI 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



Fungicides 

7. Bordeaux Mixture 

This is made by combining a solution of 
Copper Sulphate V\^ith Milk of Lime and 
reducing the mixture with the proper 
amount of water. 

Copper Sulphate Stock: dissolve copper 
sulphate (blue vitriol) in hot water, using i 
pound of the bluestone to i gallon of water. 

Milk of Lime : Slake the lime slowly and 
add water enough to make a thick paste. 
Use wooden or porcelain vessels for both 
of these stock preparations and keep both 
covered to exclude the air. They may be 
kept any length of time. 

(a) For dormant vegetation compound the 

mixture in this proportion: 

I pound copper sulphate (i gallon of 
stock). 

I pound lime (dry weight before 

slaking). 
9 gallons of water. 

(b) For plants in leaf compound as follows: 

I pound copper sulphate (i gallon of 
stock). 

I J pounds of lime (dry weight before 

slaking). 
13 gallons of water. 

52 




An encouraging fact in connection with the 
accompanying long list of insecticides is that a 
garden that is well tilled and well fed develops 
plants that will resist most pests of their own 
accord 



GARDEN PESTS 



(c) For delicate plants compound a still more 
diluted form as follows: 

1 pound copper sulphate (i gallon of 

stock). 

2 pounds lime (dry weight before slak- 

ing). 

1 7 gallons of water. 

Bordeaux Mixture loses strength after 
compounding and should not therefore be 
mixed until it is to be used. 

For saving in labor and time it is nearly 
always well to combine this with Arsenate 
of Lead. They are each equally effective 
when used together. 

Bordeaux, being a fungicide, must be 
used as already explained before sl diseased 
condition is manifest. It is a preventive 
and as such should be universally used. 

8. Potassium Sulphide 

Formula: 3 pounds of potash. 

3J pounds of sulphur (finely ground). 
3 ounces of salt. 
I gallon of water. 

Mix the potash, sulphur and salt together 
in a metal vessel with part of the water. 
The chemical action will make the mixture 
boil. Add the remainder of the water, 



53 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



which gives a stock. Dilute i part of this 
with I GO parts water for use. 

For immediate use, J ounce potassium 
sulphide (Liver of Sulphur from the druggist) 
may be mixed with i gallon of water, but 
this loses strength by standing and is there- 
fore suitable only for prompt application, 
as mixed. 

For Subterranean Insects and Internal 

Feeders 

9. Carbon Bisulphide, or Bisulphide of Carbon. 

{Caution. Never approach near the 
light or fire.) 

For Borers in Woody Stems: Inject a few 
drops of the liquid into the hole and plug 
the latter with mud, wax or putty. 

For Root Insects: Make holes in the soil 
as deep as the deepest traces of the insect. 
Pour two tablespoonfuls of the liquid into 
each hole and close at once by tramping the 
earth over. Sandy soil requires three holes 
to the square yard; heavy soil, four. 

10. Carbolic Emulsion 

Formula: i pound of hard soap (2 quarts of soft). 
I pint of crude carbolic acid. 
I gallon of water. 

54 



GARDEN PESTS 



Dissolve the soap by boiling in the water; 
add the acid and churn to an emulsion. 
Reduce i pint of this stock with 15 quarts 
of water for use at roots of tender plants. 
Reduce i pint of stock with 8 quarts of water 
for cabbage and all hardy plants. 

Poison bait 

For cutworms, wireworms, grasshoppers, locusts 
and all those insects which travel along the 
ground. 

Dip small bunches of fresh green succulent 
vegetation, such as clover, in number la, and place 
them about where the insects are or are expected. 
Lay a board or stones over the bait to keep it from 
drying out and renew every three to five days. Slices 
of potato or apple may be used instead of clover. 

A bran mash composed of i pound of white 
arsenic, 2 pounds of brown sugar and 8 pounds of 
bran, mixed thoroughly together and then moisten- 
ed with enough water to make it wet but not sloppy, 
is very effectively used against cutworms and wire- 
worms. Put it at evening in rows of corn or where- 
ever they are numerous, but do not let it come next 
to the plants as it will burn them. A teaspoonful 
at the base of a plant in the small garden is suffi- 
cient, just far enough from the stem or leaves to 
assure its not touching them. 

The Vermorel nozzle is recommended for general 
use. For spraying with number 5 it is advisable to use 

55 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



a separate nozzle, as the mixture is hard on the machine. 
This wash has not been advised in the Spraying Table 
for the reason that number 4 is regarded as generally 
more effective against the San Jose scale, in the east. 
Wherever the spray to be used is directed against scale 
insects however, number 5 may be substituted for num- 
ber 4, if it is for any reason preferred, on dormant vegeta- 
tion only, however. 

A fruit tree of average size, such as an apple, will 
require from 3 to 7 gallons of any spray to wet it thor- 
oughly. The object in spraying is to coat every leaf, 
twig and branch — every part of the plant — with the 
liquid. As soon as this is done, stop. Never attempt 
to do the work with an ordinary hose nozzle, for a fine 
misty spray is essential, and this of course cannot be 
produced by anything but a special nozzle. 



56 



spraying Table 

WINTER 



Vegetation Dormant 



Plant 


Sprat 


Insect 


Time 


Remark.8 


Apple 


4A 


Scale 


February 1. 


Scrape loose bark light- 
ly from limbs before 
spraying: this is to ex- 
pose the hibernating 
adult psylla. 

Keep this wash away 
from roots by a mound 
of earth about plant. 
Draw this away from the 
plant when the opera- 
tion is over and scatter 
to dry out. 

Spray on bright days 
only. 


Pear 


4A 


Scale, PsyUa 


February 1. 


Cherry 


4A 


Scale 


February 1. 


Plum 


4B 


Scale 


February 1. 


Peach 


4B 


Scale 


February 1. 


Apricot 


4C 


Scale 


February 1. 


Small fruits 


4B 


Scale 


February 1. 


Shade trees 


4B 


Scale 


February 1. 


Shrubs 


4B 


Scale 


February 1. 


SUMMER 
Vegetation Active 


Apple 

(seven sprayings) 


4D 


Scale March-April. 


Mix 7B and IB and 
use as one spray. 

Never destroy bees by 
spraying fruit trees in 
full bloom. 

Watch for holes of 
entry. 

Mix 7B and 2. 
For second brood. 

Mix 7B and IB. 

Use as soon as they 
appear. 

Mix 7C and IB. 
Use as soon as seen. 


7B . 
IB 


Scab 

Codling moth 


Soon as leaves 
are unfolded. 


7B 
IB 

or 2 


Scab 

Codling moth 
Curculio 


Three days after 
petals fall. 


2 


Codling moth 
Curcuho 


As larva5 are en- 
tering fruit. 


7B 
2 


Scab 

Codling moth 


Thirty days 
later. 


2 


CodUng moth 


July 25. 


2 


Codling moth 


August 15. 


Pear 

(three sprayings) 


4D 


Scale, Psylla 


March-April. 


7B 
IB 


Fungi 

CodUng moth 


Soon as leaves 
are unfolded. 


2 or 3 


Slug-worm 


Late May or 
June. 


Cherry 

(five sprayings) 


4D 


Scale 


March-April. 


7C 
IB 


Fungi 
Curculio 


Soon as leaves 
are unfolded. 


2 


Curculio 


When petals fall. 


2 


Curculio 


One week later. 


2 or 3 


Slug-worm 


Late May- June. 



57 



Plant 



Plum 

(six sprajdngs) 



Sprat 



4D 



Peach 

(six sprayings) 



Apricot 

(six sprayings) 



Insect 



Scale 



Fungi 
Curculio 



4E 



7C 



4E 



Small fruits 

(two sprayings) 



Shade trees 

(two sprayings) 



Fungi 
Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Scale 



Fungi 



Fungi 
Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Scale 



7C 



4E 



7C 



4E 



7C 



Shrubs 

(two sprayings) 



Rosea (general) 



(Hyb. Perpetuals be- 
gin to bloom) 



4E 



7C 



4E 



Fungi 



Fungi 
Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Curculio 



Scale 



Fungi 



Scale 



Fungi 



Scale 



Fungi 



7Cor8 



Scale 



Fungi 



Scale 



Fungi 



Fungi 



Aphids 



Fungi 



Fungi 



Time 



March-April. 



May, or soon as 
leaves unfold. 



When petals fall, 



Ten days later. 



Ten days later. 



Ten days later. 



March-April. 



May — early. 



When petals f aU 



Ten days later. 



Ten days later. 



Remarks 



Mix 7C and 2. 



Applications for cur- 
culio must cover every 
twig, leaf and fruit, as the 
insect feeds and lays eggs 
for an extended period. 
Cultivate the soil to a 
depth of 2 inches under 
trees, for a period of five 
weeks after full bloom of 
trees. Larvse are chang- 
ing to beetle s under- 
ground at this time and 
are destroyed by destruc- 
tion of cells in which they 
rest. 



Ten days later. 



Late March. 



May — early. 



When petals fall. 



Ten days later. 



Ten days later. 



Ten days later. 



April. 



May. 



April. 



May. 



April. 



May. 



April. 



Mid-April. 



Late April be- 
fore leaves un- 
fold. 



Ten days later. 



One week later. 



Rose-bugs 



Soon as buds set. 



Four days later. 



About June 1. 



June 5 to 



Spray for scale only 
as necessary. 

7C is to be used as 
a preventive measure 
against all kinds of 
fungous 



Bark beetles, common 
to everything, are pre- 
vented by painting trees 
with number 10. Apply 
just before first warm 
days of spring. Cut out 
branches already infested 
and burn. Apply wash 
again two times during 
the fifth month later, anc 
again two times during 
the third month later 
than this. If this beetle 
is detected at once it may 
be destroyed by touching 
the holes of entry with a 
sponge soaked in kero- 
sene. 



58 



Plant 


Sprat 


Insect 


Time 


Remarks 




2 


Rose-bugs 


One week later. 


Hybrid Perpetuals 
cease blooming about the 
first week in July, but 
they should be sprayed as 
often as every three weeks 
until the middle i of Au- 
gust, to prevent fungous 
diseases, especially if 
there is much rain and 
dampness. 




6 


Aphids 


One week later. 


(Hyb. Teas begin to 
bloom) 


8 
2 


Fungi 
Rose-bugs 


One week later. 




2 


Rose-bugs 


July 1 to 7 




2 


Rose-bugs 


One week later. 




6 


Aphids 


One week later. 






8 


Fungi 


One week later. 






8 


Fungi 


August 1 






8 


Fungi 


One week later. 






8 


Fungi 


One week later. 






8 


Fungi 


One week later. 





Spraying Calendar 



Month 


Plant 


Insect 


Sprat 


Remabks 


January or 
February 


Apple 


Scale 


4A 


Always mound the earth up 
about the bole of trees to be 
sprayed with number 4, for this 
must not penetrate to the roots 
of vegetation. The mound of 
earth catches the liquid as it 
runs down the branches; it 
should be taken away as soon as 
the work is done. 


Pear 


Scale, Psylla 


4A 




Cherry 


Scale 


4A 




Plum 


Scale 


4B 




Peach 


Scale 


4B 




Apricot 


Scale 


4B 


Winter spraying for scale is a 
precautionary measure which 
should include everything, if 
scale is known to be present on 
anything. It is a pest which 




Small fruits 


Scale 


4B 




Shade trees 


Scale 


4B 




Shrubs 


Scale 


4B 


must never be allowed to gain 
the slightest headway. 


March — late 


Apple 


Scale 


4D 






Pear 


Scale 


4D 






Cherry 


Scale 


4D 






Plum 


Scale 


4D 






Peach 


Scale 


4E 






Apricot 


Scale 


4E 






Small fruits 


Scale 


4E 






Shade trees 


Scale 


4E 






Shrubs 


Scale 


4E 




April — late 


Apple 


Scale 


4D 








Scab 

Codling mpth 


7B 
IB 


Mix 7B and IB and us© as one 
spray. 




Pear 


bcale, ir^sylla 


4D 








Fungi 

Codling moth 


7B 
IB 


Mix 7B and IB. 




Cherry 


Scale 


4D 








Fungi 
Curculio 


7C 
IB 


Mix 70 and IB. 




Plum 


Scale 


4D 








Fungi 
Curculio 


7C 
IC 


Mix 7C and 10. 




Peach 


Scale 


4E 








I'ungi 
Curculio 


7C 
2 


Mix 70 and 2. 




Apricot 


Scale 


4E 








Fungi 
Curculio 


7C 
2 


Mix 70 and 2. 



6o 



Month 


Plant 


Insect 


Spray 


Remarks 


April — late 


Small fruita 


Scale 


4E 


Burn out tent caterpillars' 
nests as soon as detected. Col- 
lect and burn all nesta of brown- 
tail moth. 




Shade trees 


Scale 


4E 




Shrubs 


Scale 


4E 




Roses 


Scale 


4E or 6 








Fungi 


7C or 8 




May 


Apple 


Scab 

Codling moth 
Curculio 


7B 

IB or 2 


Mix 7B with either IB or 2, or 
with both. 

Spray evergreens when in- 
fested with bagworm with spray 
number 2 diluted one-half. Put 
kerosene-soaked sand — use one 
cupful to a pail of sand — around 
the base of plants to prevent root 
maggots. 




Pear 


Slug-worm 
Fungi 

Codling moth 


2 or 3 

7B 

IB 




Cherry 


Curculio 
Slug-worm 


2 

2 or 3 




Plum 


Curculio 


2 






Peach 


Fungi 
Curculio 


7C 
2 






Apricot 


Fungi 
Curculio 


7C 
2 






Small frviits 


Fungi 


7C 






Shade trees 


Fungi 


7C 






Shrubs 


Fungi 


7C 






Roses 


Fungi 


8 








Aphids 


6 




June 


Apple 


Scab 

Codling moth 
Curculio 


7B 
2 


Use spray number 2 promptly 
if small caterpillars are seen on 
trees. Repeat as may be neces- 
sary throughout the season. 




Pear 


Slug- worm 


2 or 3 




Cherry 


Curculio 
Slug-worm 


2 
2 






Plum 


Curculio 


2 






Peach 


Curculio 


2 






Apricot 


Curculio 


2 






Roses 


Fungi 


8 








Rose-bugs 


2 








Slug-worms 


2 








Aphids 


6 




July 


Apple 


Codling moth 


2 


This is done to catch the second 
brood of the codling moth. 




Roses 


Rose-bugs 


2 



6i 



Month 


Plant 


Insect 


Spray 


Remarks 


July 


Roses 


Aphids 


6 




Fungi 


8 


August 


Apple 


Codling moth 


2 


Roses 


Fungi 


8 



62 



X 



INSECT HELPERS 

IT is very essential that our destructive instinct against 
those animals which, according to a very great 
man's very profound classification, are the highest of 
the six divisions which compose the animal sub- kingdom 
known to science as Annulosa, — the division grouped 
under the head Insecta — shall not be over-developed. 
We are so constantly impressed by warnings everywhere 
displayed against malign little monsters that we are 
in grave danger of never knowing anything about the 
benign little allies which this group contains. And in 
our ignorance we are in still graver danger of depriving 
ourselves of their services through our over-stimulated 
impulse to destroy. 

The destruction of these little creatures is very much 
what the destruction of horses, and cattle, and sheep, 
and dogs would be, if we proceeded to slaughter all 
animals because tigers, and wolves, and panthers, and 
other savage kinds were inimical to the life and comfort 
of man. Quite as the faithful sheep dog defends a 
flock against invading foes, does the dainty lady-bug 
defend certain other of our possessions against maraud- 
ing enemies — and though in the interests of truth and 

63 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



honesty I suppose we must confess that she does it 
unconsciously, she nevertheless does it very well, 
and as nothing else can do it. 

And quite as the patient horse fetches and carries 
for man from morning until night, the active bee 
fetches and carries also, performing a service so great 
and so important that without it only a comparatively 
small percentage of man's fruit foods would ever be 
produced at all. She serves while serving her hive to 
be sure — but we are none the less dependent upon her. 

These two small creatures — the lady-bug and the 
bee — are examples of the dual service which many of 
their great group render to the lords of creation — without 
the lords having anything to do about it. As such 
examples let us see just what it is that each does. 

The lady-bug, in the first place, is not a bug at all, 
but a beetle — that is, an insect of the sheath-winged 
order. These have two pairs of wings, the outer always 
hard and armor- like, and closing down over the thin 
and folded membranous under pair. True bugs do 
not have these sheath wings but only gauzy ones; some 
indeed are devoid of wings altogether and can only 
run or crawl about. 

Like most beetles the lady-bug is predaceous — 
is in other words a preying, carnivorous little savage, 
who devours with rapacious appetite other insects, her 
preference for those of the scale class being especially 
notable. This taste in food is the reason of her value 
to man; in feeding herself and depositing her eggs 
where the newly hatched larvae will find their favorite 

64 



INSECT HELPERS 



diet close by, waiting to be eaten, she brings destruc- 
tion to unbelievable hordes of one of man's most dreaded 
garden enemies. 

The bee belongs to another class entirely — a class 
of thin-winged insects which have mouth parts made 
both to bite and to suck. But bees are far too well 
behaved to bite, though some have been slanderously 
accused of it. Bees are nectar drinkers — and it is in 
seeking and sipping nectar that a bee accumulates on 
her legs and her body the flower dust" which marks 
her as a long- summer-day traveler. 

This flower dust is the real gold of the vegetable 
kingdom — the magic, life-laden pollen grains, one of 
the most precious of the unknowable mysteries of 
Nature's laboratory. On the bee's body they travel 
from one flower into another, and from the flowers of 
one plant into those of another, thus accomplishing 
that miracle of cross- pollination which Nature, for some 
deep reason, demands. 

Insects help us therefore in two ways : directly, by 
destroying our fruit's enemies, and indirectly, by being 
the instruments of this curious exaction termed cross- 
pollination or fertilization. And there are many kinds 
of insects working in both classes — so many that it 
is hardly possible to even hint at their numbers, or 
their wonderful life stories here. For experts place 
the total number of different kinds of insects in the 
world at from two to ten million, of which number only 
about four hundred thousand have so far been examined, 
described and named. 



65 



THE GARDEN PRICIER 



Four-fifths of all the kinds of animals are insects — 
and some single families contain more species than a 
person of normal vision can see stars on a clear night. 
It is believed, too, that the greater proportion of animal 
matter on the globe's land surface exists in the form of 
insects — in other words, that if all the insects on and in 
the land could be piled in one enormous heap, with all 
the rest of the animal kingdom, m.an included, piled in 
another, the mountain of insects would be larger 
than the mountain of animals and men! 

Out of these legions it would be difficult to select 
all of those who are indeed friends to the human race, 
even if the entire insect world were known. But with 
anywhere from three- fourths to twenty- four- twenty- 
fifths of it, according to the correctness of the estimates, 
still in the darkness of the unknown, it is of course 
impossible. And it is almost impossible to devise any 
rule which shall help the layman in determining which 
of the loiown insects are which — though such a rule 
does suggest itself as the food taste and habits of the 
various kinds are considered. 

It is based on the fact that insects are seldom or 
never, truly omnivorous. They either eat meat or 
they eat vegetables — or suck the juices from one or the 
other — ^but the same insect does not indulge in both. 
The meat eaters, therefore, being the warrior- hunters 
or beasts of prey of the insect world, are man's friends; 
the vegetarians, his everlasting foes. This seems to be 
a fair standard of judgment for all those which affect 
man directly, and from it one may formulate a plan of 

66 



INSECT HELPERS 



action — or inaction — limited to be sure,, but pretty cer- 
tain to be all right as far as it goes. It is simply the 
adoption of the rule never to destroy any kind of insect 
creature that is ever caught in the act of destroying 
another. 

Compassion must be leashed with the strong reins 
of indifference at the writhings of a cutworm in the 
cruel mandibles of a ground-beetle, or at the frantic 
terror and agonizing struggles of a baby pear-tree 
psylla when the "veritable dragon" which is the larva 
of the lace-leaf fly, seizes it between its pair of great 
sucking tubes, preparatory to drawing the life fluids 
from its body. These things must not be discouraged, 
no matter how unpleasant they are to witness or to 
think of, else the cutworm will lay low his harvest and 
the psylla in its turn will soon pump the life from the 
defenseless trees. 

Bees are very much pleasanter creatures, to all 
outward appearances at least — they behave atrociously 
to their own kind — and, aiding us indirectly as they 
do, they are not of course to be measured by any 
such distressing and murderous test; in fact bees we 
already know as friends. No spraying or poisoning 
should ever be done while they are at work, and nothing 
that will injure them should be used on fruit or ornamen- 
tal flowers at any time when they are in evidence. 

The regulation times for spraying will not interfere 
with "bee pasturage" if strictly adhered to, as bees 
are seeking nectar always before the flower has been 
fertilized, consequently before the petals drop. The 

67 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



falling of the petals is the signal for the application of 
all those sprays which are aimed at the destruction of 
worms — those larval forms of numerous creatures 
which are deposited, in the egg, at some point within 
the flower, and are thus able to work from the ''blow" 
end toward the center of the fruit. These sprays 
should never he used until this signal is observed, for 
the sacrifice of a bee may well be regarded as a catas- 
trophe to be most carefully guarded against. 



68 



XI 



FLOWERS AND POLLINATION 

RARELY does it occur to the gardener, and still 
more rarely perhaps to the person who never 
gardens at all but who is still an ardent lover of 
flowers, to consider what flowers really are. They 
are taken for granted quite as much, in their way, as 
vegetables are in theirs; and what they are and why 
they are, and how they fulfil their purpose, ordinarily 
seem unimportant. It is with their beauty that most 
persons are concerned. 

But these other things are important — highly so — 
if intelligent work is to be carried on among them, or 
with vegetation generally. For the differences in 
flowers make differences in dealing with them very 
necessary. What, then, are flowers ? 

Those who remember their botany will recall that 
flowers are those portions of a plant which bear the 
organs of reproduction — but how many remember their 
botany, I wonder. Flowers exist therefore for the 
purpose of reproducing the species, and the fact that 
they are beautiful is only incidental. The parts of a 
flower that make it beautiful are never the essential 
parts. Indeed, the essential organs — the stamens and 

69 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



pistils — may easily pass unnoticed by a casual ob- 
server, although the former are distinctly decorative 
in many flowers — the rose, for example, in its single 
varieties. The yellow stamens are sometimes so nu- 
merous in these that they give an exquisite, soft golden 
glow at the heart of the flower which greatly enhances 
its beauty. 

Stamens bear pollen or fertilizing dust, while pis- 
tils are fitted to receive this dust and to develop, by 
means of it, into the seed, or the fruit which bears the 
seed at its heart. All plants therefore which produce, 
in any form, these two essential organs, produce flowers, 
although they may not commonly be regarded as 
flowering plants. We say, for example, of the oak that 
it does not blossom; but it does, else it would not bear 
fruits — that is, acorns. And we gather pussy-willows 
without realizing that they are flowers, but they are — 
and very interesting flowers too, for there are two dis- 
tinct kinds and they are borne on separate trees, the 
staminate or male on one tree, the pistillate or female 
on another. 

This brings us to a phase of flower form which is 
one of the most important things for a gardener to under- 
stand; namely, their deviation from the type, or perfect, 
flower. A perfect flower is complete in itself, hence its 
classification as perfect. It is hermaphrodite or bi- 
sexual — double sexed — ha\dng both stamens and pistils, 
or pistil (sometimes there is only one of the latter). 
The natural, single rose is an example of a perfect 
flower. 



70 



FLOWERS AND POLLINATION 



But there are myriads of flowers which are not 
perfect — which are unisexual or single sexed. Some 
scientists indeed are of the opinion that there is a 
tendency in all forms of plant Ufe toward flowers of 
the unisexual form — that it is the step forward in the 
evolution of vegetation — but that is too big a subject 
to consider here, besides being wide of the question. 

The important thing for us is to know that these 
two kinds of flowers are borne in two distinct ways on 
the plant. Sometimes the two sexes are upon the same 
plant, as in the oak; at other times they are upon sepa- 
rate plants. The willow is an instance of this. When 
both are found upon one plant it is said of that species 
that it is monoecious or ''of one household;" when they 
are upon separate plants the species is dioecious or 
"of separate households." 

There is a still further variation, some species 
producing the two kinds of flowers — those that are per- 
fect or bisexual and also those that ar^ unisexual — and 
both kinds — staminate and pistillate — of the latter. 
These plants are called polygamous. Common bitter- 
sweet of woods and thickets is an example, also the 
horsechestnut, maple, sumach, honey locust — and 
many others. 

The importance to the gardener of this variation 
in flowers lies in its bearing so directly upon the pro- 
duction of seed, otherwise fruit. It is of course impos- 
sible for a solitary dioecious plant to produce fruit, even 
though it is of the fruiting or pistillate form. Here is a 
staminate sassafras tree, outside the window, yellow with 

71 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



blossoms. Down the road three hundred feet is another, 
its pistillate mate. Once or twice I have found on the 
latter a fugitive berry or two in the autumn, but this is 
rare. The two are so far apart that the pollen shed by 
this tree is lost in the air before it reaches the blossoms 
on the one yonder — consequently fruit rarely "sets." 

Even with those plants whose flowers are perfect 
and therefore capable of self-pollination, cross-pollina- 
tion is better, producing usually seed that germinates 
into stronger and better plants, or else producing fruit 
of a decidedly superior quality. Nature therefore has 
arranged to secure cross-pollination for most things, in 
one way or another, even though they do produce per- 
fect flowers. 

Sometimes this is accompHshed by ripening the 
pistils and the stamens at different times, so that when 
the pollen is shed the pistil of the flower whose anthers 
shed it is not capable of retaining it. Some plants 
indeed are self-sterile and absolutely require pollen 
from another individual in order to set fruit — many 
times from another variety. 

There are about sixty species known to be more 
or less self-sterile, according to the Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture. The condition is found 
among grapes and it is by no means uncommon am.ong 
orchard fruits. Pears and plums show it most fre- 
quently perhaps; some apples, while not exactly self- 
sterile, are much improved by being cross-pollinated 
with another variety (providing the right variety is 
chosen), the Baldwin apple being a case in point. 

72 



The natural single Rose is an example of a perfect 
flower — double sexed, having both stamens and pistils 




One of the most fascinating phases of gardening is the 
study of the self-polUnation and cross-polUnation that 
is being carried on throughout the flowering season by 
Nature's various agencies 



FLOWERS AND POLLINATION 



Alone this bears excellent fruit, but planted with its 
proper variety, it bears fruit that is finer still. 

Self- sterility is not always constant, a variety that 
has shown it in one place sometimes not developing 
it in another. This is owing to climatic and soil con- 
ditions probably, the plant doubtless being better 
adapted to those conditions which do not develop it. 

A self-sterile variety sometimes sets fruit which it 
fails to mature. Thus a whole orchard that is in per- 
fect health and well cared for, may blossom freely, set 
fruit, and then drop it when it is not more than half 
grown. New trees of the same variety added to the 
orchard will not improve the situation, but trees of some 
other variety — and it must be the right one — will bring 
the whole orchard into vigorous bearing. There must 
be an afhnity between the two however, as well as sim- 
ultaneous ripening of anthers and pistils so that cross- 
pollination may take place. Just what this actual 
affinity is for any given variety, only experiment will 
determine, ordinarily; the Department of Agriculture 
is the best help, in this as in all other knotty problems. 

Some varieties of ornamental flowers — if we may 
so distinguish the garden favorites — hybridize so freely 
that experienced gardeners keep them strictly isolated 
if they are deshous of keeping the strain pure. Colum- 
bines are one of these, separate species mixing and 
varying constantly if planted together. Flowers of 
variegated colors are probably the result of cross- 
pollination — and of course the beautiful hybrids of 
plant breeders are produced by this method. 

73 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



It is a subject not only of deepest interest but of 
boundless possibilities. Only a suggestion of these can 
be given in a work of this nature of course, but the wise 
gardener will pursue the matter further, for it is so 
far-reaching that no amount of study will be wasted. 

Seed is the starting point of plant life; the end and 
aim of a plant is the reproduction of its species, hence 
the end and aim of the flower of a plant is the seed. 
Unless seeds are formed therefore, the whole purpose 
of the plant is thwarted; which is the reason why many 
plants will go on in the effort to produce seed — to re- 
produce their kind — by blossoming again and again 
when deprived of their blossoms. This is at the bottom 
of the rule never to let a flowering plant go to seed, 
but always to cut the fading flowers away before seeds 
have formed, thus encouraging further bloom. 

Perhaps we are cruel to do this; certainly it does 
seem hard, the patient, persevering struggle that the 
helpless things carry on to fulfil their destiny. Up they 
come bravely in spite of greedy shears, in spite of re- 
peated discouragement, just as sweet and just as beau- 
tiful as ever — and just as hopeful, bless them! Heigho! 
Who can a gardener be and not fall to philosophizing ? 

Double flowers are monstrous man-made forms, 
unnatural and abhorred by Nature! Sounds dreadful, 
does it not ? — ^but it is all true. For double flowers are 
''double'^ at the expense of the reproducing organs; 
they have been selected and inbred and restrained and 
cajoled until they have twenty or fifty or any number 
of times their normal number of petals, at the expense 



FLOWERS AND POLLINATION 



of their stamens — and they cannot therefore fulfil the 
purpose of a flower and produce seed. They are actu- 
ally sterile flowers — and the only flowers that ought 
ever to be called that. The name is applied to the non- 
fruiting male or staminate flower very often, but this 
application is not the proper one, double flowers alone 
being sterile, strictly speaking; ray flowers, also called 
sterile sometimes, are actually neuter. 

These, by-the-way, are understood to appear with 
the small inconspicuous flowers which they encircle, 
for the purpose of attracting insects. They are the 
plant's banner, flung out to signal its tiny allies and 
invite them to the nectar feast which the little chalices 
of the hardly noticeable true flowers hold. As the insects, 
thus attracted, make the rounds, their bodies gather 
pollen in one place and carry it on to another, and the 
highly desired cross-pollination is accomplished. 

The small, flat, white "flowers" — really nothing 
but clusters of petals — which encircle the cymes of the 
high-bush cranberry are an example of these, while the 
old-fashioned snowball or guelder rose — the cran- 
berry's closest relative, for both are viburnums — shows 
a doubling of these neuter flowers at the expense of 
every one of the tiny perfect flowers which make up 
the body of the bush cranberry cyme. Examine these 
two shrubs and compare the flower clusters of the one 
with the other; compare especially the ray flowers with 
the center, smaller flowers of the cluster from the cran- 
berry, and then compare them with the " flowers'' that 
make up the snowball. The difl'erence and the 

75 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



likeness is instantly apparent, even to an untrained 
observer. 

In passing let us note that all vegetation does not 
produce flowers. Rushes, ferns, mosses, certain aqua- 
tics, and mud-loving plants reproduce by spores; but 
this class is of little practical value in the garden, so 
need not be more than mentioned. 



76 



XII 



VEGETABLES 



*HE word ** vegetable" unquestionably means 



JL something very definite to everyone who comes 
upon it, anywhere at all — but to define just what a 
vegetable is, is not so simple a matter as it would seem. 
Indeed it is likely to become very involved, the deeper 
one gets into it, yet to cultivate them intelligently we 
should know pretty accurately what they are. 

Suppose that a start is made with the declaration 
that a vegetable is an edible plant; here is the common- 
est vegetable of them all — the potato — to prove at once 
that the statement is wholly inadequate, for the potato 
is not a plant at all, but only the root of a plant. And 
squash is actually a fruit, while green corn is a seed ! 

It is amusing, by-the-way, to note that the law has 
taken a fling at this puzzling question, and declared 
solemnly that a "vegetable" is one of the plants eaten, 
either raw or cooked, during the principal part of a meal, 
while a " fruit" is one eaten as dessert. In which event 
cranberry sauce, coming with the roast, must be a 
vegetable, while rhubarb, served in delectable pie 
form, is a fruit. 




77 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



Classes of Vegetables 



Below the Ground 


Above the Ground 


Roots and Tubera 


Stem or part of plant 


Fruit 


Seed 


Beets 


Celery 


Cucumber 


Green corn 


Carrots 


Endive 


Egg-plant 


Beans 


Kohlrabi 


Lettuce 


Tomato 


Peas 


Onions 


Corn salad 


Pepper 




Parsnips 


Cress 


String beans 




Potatoes 


Chicory 


Sugar peas 




Radishes 


Dandelion 


Squash 




Salsify 


Mustard 


Pumpkin 




Turnips 


Sorrel 


Muskmelon 




Celeriac 


Asparagus 


Watermelon 




Leek 


Cabbage 






Scorzonera 


♦Cauliflower 
Kale 

Mushrooms 

Spinach 

Swiss chard 
♦Artichoke 
♦Broccoli 

CoUards 

Okra 

Rhubard 

Parsley 

Chevril 

Nasturtium 

Martynia 







♦ Flower heads. 



But the definition is simple enough after all, 
evolving from our first statement by the addition of only 
a word — or, to be strictly accurate, two words. A 
vegetable is an edible plant, or pari; that covers the 
entire field. 

Vegetables classify under four distinct heads, and 
it is well always to think of them according to these 
divisions, for many things about their culture and 
requirements depend upon which class they fall into. 
The proportions are interesting too, as well as the fact 

78 



VEGETABLES 



that two of our favorite fruits find themselves in the list — 
the muskmelon or .cantaloupe, and the watermelon. 
The list of fifty given will be useful to refer to when the 
question of fertilizing is under consideration. 

All of those plants whose edible portions grow 
below the ground — all root vegetables — should have 
light, mellow, rich soil. All stones and even small 
pebbles should be worked out of it, if perfect roots are to 
be produced, smooth and clean on their surfaces. Some 
gardeners, growing specimens for exhibition, go so far 
as to sift earth, well mixed with pulverized rotted 
manure, into holes previously dug out, but this is more 
trouble than many will care to take, and not necessary 
excepting on unusually stony soil or hard clay banks. 

For the benefit of those who may wish to try this, 
or who have land demanding such preparation, however, 
it may be said that for the deepest-rooted vegetables, 
like salsify and long beets, the holes m.ust be two feet 
or more deep and three to four inches broad. The 
earth must of course be taken out, and the sifted earth 
put in place of it. Sow three or four seeds in the 
space, but leave only one strong seedling to mature 
finally. Thinning must always be done before vege- 
tables crowd each other at all, to be effective. 

All vegetables that are used during the summer — 
all green vegetables — are better if not allowed to ma- 
ture fully. This is one advantage of having a garden, 
for unless such vegetables are home grown, they are 
practically unattainable. Market gardeners grow for 
appearance and size, naturally, and must therefore 

79 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



bring their products to full maturity before harvesting 
them. The home garden, on the contrary, should 
yield its summer foods while they are young, not fully 
grown, and consequently juicy, tender and sweet. 

The table which is appended gives planting dates 
for the latitude of New York. A hundred miles north 
or south means always a week's difference in time — 
south being earlier of course and north later. The 
several dates given for some of the vegetables are for 
succession crops, and do not mean that sowings must 
be made as often, nor as many times, as the table shows. 
They may be, however, the latest date being early 
enough to allow for the maturing of the crop before 
severe weather nips it. Special cultural directions 
cannot be given here, for these require volumes in them- 
selves and are distinctly beyond the province of a 
primer. 



80 



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Transplant 1 month 
after sowing; best after 
being frost touched. 

Sow in drills and thin 
out as plants grow; may 
be wintered in coldframe 
or under straw if in pro- 
tected place. 

Improved by winter 
freezing. 

The August sowing 
should be of a quickly 
maturing variety such 
as the "extra earlies." 

Main crop in late May 
or June. 

Sprinkle hills with air- 
slaked lime. 


Aiog ox 

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18-24 


12-16 


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13-18 


17-20 


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10-15 


6-10 


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12-18 


5-10 


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15-25 


6-10 


Distance between 


Rows 


30 inches 


30 inches 


1 foot 


4 feet 


18 inches 


18 inches 


2-4 feet 


30 inches 


30 inches 


8 feet 


Plants 


30 inches 


2 feet 


1 foot 


4 feet 


2 inches 


6 inches 


2 inches 


30 inches 


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8 feet 


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Open Ground 


Set in June 


June 1 
Aug. 15 


April 1 and 15 
May 1 and 15 
June 1 and 15 
July 1 and 15 
Aug. 15 


May 1 


April 20 


April 15 


Mar. 15 and 30 

April 15 and 30 
May 15 and 30 
June 15 and 30 
Aug. 1 


Set out June 1 


April; May or 
June 


May 


Hotbed 


March 




February 




February 






March 






s 
1 

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Egg-plant 


Kale— for fall 

for spring 


Lettuce 


1 Muskmelon 


1 Onions 


Parsnips 


Peas, smooth 
" wrinkled and 
smooth 

*' smooth 


1 Peppers 


Potatoes 


Pumpkins 



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83 



XIII 



FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 

IT is astonishing that such a measure of good luck 
attends the guesses which most of us make at 
supplying the needs of the soil — or, to be more exact, 
the needs of the plants which grow in the soil — because 
very few really know anything about it. But of course 
the makers of commercial fertihzers have helped us 
greatly, and there are many, scientifically compounded 
and of real value, upon the market, every pound 
accompanied with directions for its application to the 
soil. What these compounds do, however, and why 
they do it, and why it needs doing, are details of the 
matter that even very advanced gardeners do not 
trouble to concern themselves with — at least not often. 
The general idea is to make the soil ^'rich," and if one 
thing doesn't produce a crop luxuriant enough to 
indicate that this has been accomplished, something 
else is tried — something that is hit upon somehow, 
somewhere, that somebody says is good because it 
has benefited some other garden. 

Of course everybody knows that the growth of a 
plant requires food just as much as the growth of a 

84 



FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 



child or a bird or anything else in creation requires it. 
But the ideas about this food are very vague; ^^what 
plants eat" is an untold tale, mysterious, almost 
chimerical to the practical mind accustomed to seeing 
before believing. Let us see if we cannot straighten 
this out a nttle and come to a real comprehension of 
plant feeding; then fertilizers will not seem so deadly 
dull and uninteresting — and incomprehensible. 

The food of plants consists of thirteen ^'chemical 
elements." Nine of these are taken by the plant 
directly from the soil — these are the pure mineral plant 
foods — three are taken from water and from air, and 
the thirteenth and last is taken principally from decay- 
ing organic matter in the soil. 

In order to understand this quite clearly let us 
stop just here long enough to take a look at the chemi- 
cal classification of the soil, spoken of in a previous 
chapter. Soil is made up of mineral matter and 
organic matter — two forms that are, of course, widely 
different — and to get at this composition of it in the 
simplest way possible we will follow the suggestion 
of one of the Department of Agriculture experts and 
magnify a cubic inch of soil, in the imagination, to a 
cubic mile — and then look it over. It becomes very 
vivid, and the processes going on in it are plainly 
revealed, imder such an examination. 

It will look like a mass of rocks and stones vary- 
ing from the size of a pea to boulders several feet in 
diameter. These are the mineral particles — ^in com- 
mon parlance the "dirt" — which predominate and 

85 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



form the foundation of all soil. Among these rocks 
and stones, in many of their large and small interstices, 
will be decaying pieces of plant roots and stems and 
other organic matter, which appear very much like 
logs and pieces of logs rotting among masses of rock 
and gravel. All of this organic substance will be 
dripping with water like a soaked sponge, while all the 
stones and rocks have a layer of water over their 
surfaces. And finally, in all the spaces where there 
is nothing else, there is air — ^indeed nearly half the 
volume of the whole cubic mile is air. 

A plant root coming down into this magnified 
cubic inch of soil would be of course an enormous 
thing, pushing its way among the rocks and stones and 
decaying matter with a great, tireless, steady, resist- 
less pressure that would move the biggest of them. 
Near the tip of this ever extending and down-reaching 
growth, small hollow tubes — root hairs — would be 
seen reaching out and feeling this way and that, suck- 
ing the water from the surfaces of the rocks and from 
the dripping, spongy masses among them, by drawing 
it through their thin and delicate walls. 

In this water is the mineral food, dissolved off in 
the minutest particles from the "rocks" — and it is 
somewhat staggering to note, by the way, that in 
order to produce one pound of growth in dry matter — 
that is in branch and leaf, flower and ixmt—from joo 
to 800 pounds of water must be taken in by a plant's 
roots, drawn up through its stalks and branches, and 
discharged or "transpired" by its leaves. Think of 

86 



FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 



the stupendous work being carried on by all the silent 
green things that we give scarce a thought to in the 
long, drowsy summer days! 

All fertilizers present, in different forms, three 
essentials — phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. The 
latter is the last of those thirteen chemical elements 
mentioned which feed vegetation — the one which 
comes principally from decaying organic matter in 
the soil — and in some respects it is the most important 
of all. Unfortunately it is the one most easily lost — 
nitrates being very soluble — through washing out, or 
exhausted in other ways; therefore it is the one which 
should be applied only in sufficient quantity for the 
immediate use of the plants to be grown, and just at 
the proper time for their needs. It is usually well to 
wait until they are above the ground. 

Surplus phosphoric acid and potash, on the con- 
trary, will usually remain in the soil until succeeding 
crops use them up, so it does not matter so much if 
these are applied in excess. They are not wasted. 

What is known as a complete fertilizer is a com- 
bination of these three in the proportion generally of 
I part nitrogen, 2 parts phosphoric acid and 2 J to 3 
parts potash. Such a fertilizer will meet all require- 
ments of the average garden, especially if the soil is 
treated V/ith lime first. Lime is not a fertiHzer in 
the strictest sense, but it sweetens the soil as well as 
helps to bring about physical and other changes that 
make plant food available. 

The sources of each of these three fertilizer ingre- 

87 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



dients are important to know and remember, for even 
though a complete commercial product that just suits 
one's garden is found, it is well to have an intelligent 
understanding of its composition. Many times the 
application of one of the three is all that is needed, and 
where this is the case it is much better to use only the 
one — for gorging the soil is as bad as starving it. 

Nitrogen is supplied by nitrate of soda, sulphate 
of ammonia, cotton seed meal, high grade dried blood, 
green manuring — that is, a leguminous crop such as 
cow peas, clover of all kinds, soy beans and others, 
grown and plowed under — and by stable manure. 
No fertilizer is better than the latter if properly 
handled, and all f ertiKzers should be supplemented by 
it for the humus that it carries into the soil. 

Potash is furnished by muriate and sulphate of 
potash — the latter is preferable as it can be used on ail 
plants while the former cannot — by a crude German 
product called kainite, and by unleached wood ashes. 
The latter of course yield it in a much less degree for a 
given bulk, but they are invaluable as a fertilizer. 

Phosphoric acid comes in ''floats" — that is in 
South Carolina rock from the phosphatic beds of that 
state — ^in what are known as superphosphates, and in 
the various kinds of plain bone meal and bone ash or 
ground bone "flours" that are on the market. 

The work of these three elements is divided of 
course, but generally speaking nitrogen promotes lux- 
uriant growth of leaf and branch, hence is the greatest 
stimulant to those vegetables especially of which we 

88 




It must be remembered that plants cannot continue to 
draw their necessary nourishment out of a garden year 
after "ear unless their particular needs are studied and 
met by supplying the proper fertilizer 



The roots of a Pea vine, showing the little nodules 
which are instrumental in extracting nitrogen from 
the air through the soil 



FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 



eat the tops or leafy portions; potash builds up and 
strengthens wood and fruit, while phosphoric acid 
seems to be the food which flowering plants, whether 
shrubby or herbaceous, most appreciate. 

Learn to watch your garden and find out from 
the plants and the w^ay they grow just what it is that 
they need. Do not, for instance, give nitrogen when 
top growth is rank and luxuriant, but fruit of poor 
quality and not abundant, for such a condition 
probably means that trees are star\ing for potash. 
Of course all the elements should be present in order 
to get the best results — but frequently it is necessary 
to supply only one in order to make the proportions 
right, as already suggested. The trick is to find out 
which one. 

It is largely a matter of common sense, once you 
know what is what — and without knowing this no 
amount of directions will be any real help. It is 
necessary to reahze what is going on down in the 
ground where the roots are doing their work — how 
they are gathering up one substance and another in the 
tiniest and most minute particles — in order to realize 
that a very Kttle too much of one thing or a very little 
deficiency of the other may actually work ill to a plant 
— may surfeit or starve it. 

Finally, there is one other thing about the soil 
that should here be mentioned, partly for the reason 
that it is so generally overlooked in all that is said or 
written about soil, good or bad, and partly because it 
is interesting. It is a phase of soil fertihty that does 

89 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



not perhaps enter into the beginner's gardening, but 
who can tell what moment the beginner, inspired by 
success and other things, is going to branch out and 
become a real scientific agriculturist who wants to 
know everything? And then besides, who can know 
too much, even though he be but a beginner? 

It is only recently, comparatively, that investi- 
gators have been led to beheve that plants give off 
certain organic substances during the processes of 
growth which, accumulating in the soil, are harmful 
to the successive growth of plants of the same kind. 
This may be the reason, or one of the reasons, why 
the benefits of crop rotation are so marked: the soil 
is freed from the toxic matter emanating from one 
species in the three or four years during which other 
crops are grown upon it. Sometimes — not often to 
be sure, but sometimes — poor and sterile soil may be 
poor and sterile because thus poisoned. 

But this is , a big subject, and such a condition 
Mnll hardly occur in any excepting a very extensive 
garden. So one need not go into the matter at 
first. However, remember it if later experience ever 
brings you the baffling problem of a soil that con- 
sistently and obstinately produces only failure under 
every kind of manipulation. There are such — soils 
that will not >ield nourishment enough to sustain 
plant life — but happily they are being studied and 
experimented on until the reasons for their sulkiness 
stand small chance of remaining secret much longer. 
And every State Agricultural Experiment Station is 

90 



FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 



ready to give anyone who may ask, all the information 
which they have acquired on the subject — or to go 
farther and take up the individual problem by making 
an analysis of a soil specimen submitted to them and 
advising according to that analysis. 

It is decidedly the part of wisdom to apply for 
this expert advice when an unusual condition exists; 
and such application is not only encouraged but it is 
urged by the Department, for of course each new 
problem means further opportunity for departmental 
research, and therefore a greater possibiHty of import- 
ant discovery. 



XIV 



PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 

SEED is of course the beginning of plant life, but 
Nature does not limit herself to seed alone for 
plant propagation; indeed she behaves with some 
things as if she expected almost their every effort in 
the struggle for existence to be thwarted. And these 
are the things which we commonly speak of as spread- 
ing from the roots, or from suckers or stolons. 

It is this determination in every bit of branch or 
root to live and grow, which makes the process known 
as layering possible. This process is the simplest 
means at the gardener's service, other than the sowing 
of seed, for increasing the number of any given specimen. 
Being a perfectly natural method of reproduction, the 
most inexperienced are practically certain of success 
with it, and it has two advantages — possessed by cut- 
tings and graftings too — over seedage. 

The first is the certainty of its always preserving the 
identity of a species or variety, a thing which seedlings 
cannot always be counted upon to do. Instead of 
"running true" they have a way of playing curious 
pranks sometimes, strongly suggestive of those unruly 

92 



PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 



human offspring in whom little resemblance to either 
parent, or any known ancestor, can be traced — those 
profligates or geniuses, as the case may be, who startle 
their relatives and sometimes stir the world. This 
variation does not happen commonly, to be sure, with 
the plants ordinarily dwelling in a garden, but there are 
innumerable things with which it does happen occa- 
sionally — usually highly bred varieties — and some with 
which it invariably occurs, and which therefore posi- 
tively cannot be reproduced from seed. 

The second advantage which plants produced by 
layering have is a curious, anomalous combination of 
youth and maturity — for a plant produced by layering 
is as old as the parent plant, in one sense, yet as young 
as its own newly formed roots and independent life, in 
another. And in this combination there seems to dwell 
all the lusty vigor of youthful growth and the luxuriant 
productiveness of maturity. Indeed it is no unusual 
thing to see, in a nursery, absurd little "shrubs" not more 
than eight or ten inches high, bearing great trusses of 
blossoms, quite in a grown-up fashion — stock, of course, 
that has been grown from layers or cuttings — or possi- 
bly grafts. Ordinarily a plant of such diminutive size 
would be only a seedling of a year's growth, at least two 
or three years removed from even the most precocious 
attempt at producing blossoms. 

Nature resorts to layering with many species. The 
sweet trailing arbutus of the woods is one example; the 
noxious poison ivy is another; the strawberry of garden 
and field, and the blackberry, whose canes lie along the 

93 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



ground, are more familiar ones perhaps, the former 
indeed being regular "walking" plants, journeying 
along from season to season by means of their runners, 
which creep out and root to form new plants. The 
berry canes root at the nodes of the stems without such 
special appendages, and do not as a consequence 
travel so fast. 

The operation of layering depends upon the tend- 
ency of plants to produce roots from what is called the 
"cambium zone," or layer, of their stems — that layer 
of tender tissue between the bark and the inner "wood, 
along which the nutritive juices flow. As a matter of 
fact roots are produced by stems ordinarily, and not 
stems by roots, though we are not in the habit of think- 
ing of plant growth as progressing thus. Commonly roots 
are supposed to give rise to stems, but they do not. 

A root may appear anywhere along a stem, but 
the most favorable place to invite root formation by 
covering the stem with earth, is at the nodes; just as 
at this point growth of a branch above ground may be 
most confidently expected. Young branches are usually 
chosen for layering, because they are more pliable and 
easily bent down; and they may be removed from 
the parent plant when they have rooted without affect- 
ing it as much as the sacrifice of heavier growth would. 
The season of greatest activity is most favorable to the 
speedy rooting of layered stems — so of course spring 
or early summer is chosen for the work. 

There are, generally speaking, four methods or 
forms of layering, though some differences in detail 

94 



PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 



bring the number to double this — but they are all 
modifications of, or developments of, the one idea, which 
is to cover a node in a stem with earth. Roots tend 
eternally away from the light and towards moisture, 
hence they must have earth in which to bury themselves, 
where the one is excluded and the other conserved. 
A very little pile of earth over a stem is enough, however, 
to encourage them to make a start, and their activity 
usually commences at once. 

To layer a vine or somewhat prostrate growing 
shrub, lay a branch or cane of the previous season's 
growth — unless otherwise specified — down along a 
shallow trench, and cover it at intervals of four or five 
inches, leaving a node or two between each covered 
space so that shoots may rise as well as roots 
descend. When these shoots have made a good start, 
fill in the uncovered spaces up to, and around, them, 
until they have the appearance of a row of separate 
little plants growing from the ground. Do not sever 
them from the parent plant however, until late in the 
fall or in the following spring. The time of course 
depends on when the branch was laid down, and also 
upon the plant's ability to root quickly. Some things 
must be left undisturbed much longer than others. 

Serpentine layering is advocated by many, as it 
is supposed to induce a more even flow of sap and there- 
fore a correspondingly even distribution of roots along 
the layered stem. It is the same as the simple layering 
just described, except that the stem is arched above 
the ground, at the uncovered spaces, while the portions 

95 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



to be covered are curved down beneath it. This ser- 
pentine form is repeated to the end of the branch, where 
the tip is finally turned down into the earth. As the 
tendency of sap is to flow to the end of branches and 
make there the strongest growth, it is not unlikely that 
there is an advantage in thus intercepting it by curves, 
though some do not think it worth while. Quick grow- 
ing vines seem to respond to it very satisfactorily how- 
ever; and it is worth trying on the season's growth of a 
clematis or Wistaria. 

A single plant of honeysuckle or almost any hardy 
vine — honeysuckle especially roots very readily — may 
be carried the length of a wall or fence by simply bury- 
ing each season's longest branches either in the ser- 
pentine or simple layer, and going on each successive 
season from vfhere the last left off. In such a situation 
the plants springing from the layered sections need not 
be severed and transplanted, for they are already where 
they are wanted. 

With shrubs or trees, branches must of course be 
bent down to reach the earth. Usually they are held 
in place by a forked stick driven firmly over them, after 
which the end of the branch is turned abruptly up so that 
the tip stands erect out of the ground. This is held by 
tying it to a stake. The bark will be ruptured by the 
sharp bend underground, and this is usually enough of 
an obstruction in the flow of nutriment to induce roots 
to put forth in search of more ; but lest it should not be, 
a cleft may be made in the branch, near a node, from 
below up, through not more than a third of the total 

96 




The Geranixim is one of the easiest plants to propagate 
by means of cuttings. This plant has been pruned of 
many cuttings that were potted separately to form new 
plants 



PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 



thickness of the branch. Sometimes it is well to remove 
a ring of outer bark entirely, all around the stem, but 
this is not necessary except with plants which have 
exceptionally thick and hard bark. 

Stool or mound layering requires a little longer 
time as there must be due preparation for it. The 
shrub from which new plants are to be propagated is 
pruned back severely in the spring — headed in to noth- 
ing but low, short stubs — to induce a free growth of 
young and tender sprouts. When these strong young 
shoots are well grown — usually by the middle of sum- 
mer — a mound of earth is piled entirely over the old 
plant and brought up some distance on the stems of the 
young shoots. This induces them to root freely, and 
by the succeeding spring they are ready to be dug up, 
separated and planted as individuals. 

Tip layering is exactly what the name implies — the 
laying down of a tip alone, which, bent to the earth, is 
buried for a few inches. Branches which will not bend 
enough to be forked down and turned back up, may 
sometimes be rooted by tip layering. Three to four 
inches is deep enough to cover stems in practically all 
cases, whatever form is chosen for the work. 

Cuttings are very much like layers, but differ from 
them in that they are separated from the parent plant 
before any roots are formed, and the whole process of 
root formation has therefore to be carried on indepen- 
dently. For this reason they are not so simple an under- 
taking for the amateur as layers; the latter can — in- 
deed must — be left alone, while cuttings require care 

97 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



and must, under some circumstances, be watched very 
closely. 

They may be made from both ripened and green 
wood, and they may be taken from the root, stem or 
leaf of a plant. They are designated accordingly as 
hard or ripe, and green; and as root, stem, or leaf cut- 
tings. Green cuttings are made from the soft wood — 
the succulent and tender, most recent growth — or from 
the hardened growing wood — the growth that is hard 
but is not yet fully ripened or turned into actual wood 
fibre. Ripe cuttings are made from the fully matured 
and ripened wood. 

The best authorities agree that hard wood or ripe 
cuttings will practically always root, though it takes 
longer and they are not always the finest plants when 
they do *'take hold" and grow. Cuttings of green or 
soft wood are a doubtful undertaking, and are liable to 
die before they have had time to root — therefore they 
are Hkely to prove very discouraging to the beginner. 

The practical value of cuttings lies in the oppor- 
tunity which they offer of turning one currant bush into 
a dozen in a single season, or making twenty grape vines 
grow where one grew before, with absolutely no outlay. 
Ornamental shrubs and perennials, too, may of course 
be multiplied in this way, though the latter are usually 
increased in a simpler way by division of the roots every 
two or three years. 

Cuttings of hard wood may be taken any time when 
the plant is dormant; it is usual to prepare them after 
the leaves fall in the autumn and let them lie through 



ROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 



the winter to callous. This callus is very necessary and 
unless it forms, no roots will appear. It is occasioned 
by the swelling of the inner bark at the severed end or 
base of the cutting; this gradually rolls out and over 
the entire raw or cut surface, covering it with new tissue 
in practically the same way that the wound left on a tree 
by pruning off a branch, is covered. Usually this takes 
from two to three months, and cuttings are sometimes 
prepared thus, long before they are to be set into the 
ground. On the other hand, they may be taken from 
the parent plant in the fall and set immediately, out-of- 
doors. 

Ripe cuttings should be 6 to 8 inches long and 
should contain never less than two buds or two pair of 
buds — and there is no harm in having a dozen. The 
cut at the bottom does not have to be made immediately 
below a bud, though it is well to have it come at such a 
point. It should slant however, in order to furnish as 
broad a diameter as possible for the sending forth of 
roots. Rub off all except the upper bud or pair of buds, 
and plant with a dibble, just as a seedling is planted. 
Never thrust a cutting forcibly into the ground just 
because it is easy to do so; they should be set carefully 
and treated quite the same as a rooted plant in this 
respect. Place them two inches apart and set them deep 
so that only the remaining upper bud or pair of buds is 
just above the surface. Firm them by tramping, and 
mulch them heavily before cold weather sets in. 

Hardened cuttings — that is, cuttings of growing 
wood which is old enough to be hard without being 

99 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



turned into actual wood fibre — may be taken late in July 
or early August and rooted indoors, before cold weather 
usually, in fiats filled with clean, well packed, sharp 
sand — no fertilizer whatsoever shouldhe applied, and no 
earth should be mixed with it. But they should be 
carried over the winter indoors rather than set out after 
they have struck root, for their fibre does not harden 
sufficiently, during the time they are rooting indoors, 
to bear the severity of winter, and they are very likely 
to die if set out. Keep them protected from strong 
sunlight while rooting and keep the sand constantly 
saturated with moisture. Give them pure air and 
ventilation too, but do not let wind and cool air reach 
them. They may be potted after they are well rooted, 
just as any plant would be. 

Cuttings that are to lie over for the winter to callous 
should be tied in bundles with tarred string — var- 
mints" hate the tar and will leave it severely alone — 
and buried a foot and a half deep, upside down, in a 
sandy, thoroughly drained and well protected place out 
doors, and then well mulched; or they may be buried in 
moist sand or moss in a cool cellar. Plant them outside 
in the spring, just as those that are set out immediately 
after taking from the parent shrub are planted; or plant 
them indoors in the sand fiat if preferred. They are 
ready in either case to go into their permanent places 
by the following fall. 

Root cuttings are made in the autumn, very much 
as hard wood cuttings are, and allowed to lie over the 
winter to callous, or planted at once in flats filled with 

100 



PROPAGATION WITHOUT SEEDS 



equal parts of sand and thoroughly rotted leaf mold. 
Set them horizontally, and make them about two inches 
long; cover them an inch deep and firm the soil down. 
Keep moist and rather cool ; a cool cellar is a good place 
for them. When they are ready to grow — when they 
show growth above the earth — they may be brought 
where it is warmer. 



Common Shrubs Propagated by Layering 

Calycanthus; Carolina allspice or sweet shrub: 
simple layers, put down in summer, severed in late 
autumn. 

Exochorda; pearl bush: simple layers, put down 
in summer, severed in late autumn. 

Forsythia; golden bells: simple, serpentine, or tip 
layers, put down in summer, severed in late autumn. 
Tips will root where they strike the ground, often with- 
out earth over them. 

Kerria; corchorus or globe flower: simple layers, 
put down in summer, severed in late autumn. 

Philadelphus; garland flower or syringa: simple 
layers, put down in summer, severed in late autumn. 

Rhus; sumach; simple layers, put down in sum^mer, 
severed in late autumn. 

Ribes; flowering currant; mound layers, covered 
in summer, severed the following spring. 

Viburnum; viburnum, snowball, etc.: simple 
layers put down in summer, severed in late autumn. 

lOI 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



Common Shrubs Propagated by Cuttings 

Ceanothus; New Jersey tea: readily from green 
cuttings in spring; ripe cuttings in autumn, set at once 
in flat, in coldframe or indoors. 

Cornus; dogwood or cornel : those of naturally soft- 
wooded growth from ripe cuttings readily; all from 
nearly ripe cuttings, in summer. 

Cydonia Japonica; Japanese quince: root cuttings 
in the fall or early spring. 

Diervilla; Weigela: green or hardwood cuttings. 

Deutzia; Deutzia: green or hardwood cuttings. 

Hydrangea; hydrangea: half ripe or nearly ripe 
cuttings in summer, in flats ; also ripe cuttings. 

Sambucus; elder: cuttings of ripe wood or root 
cuttings. 

Spiraea; spirea: ripe wood cuttings. 

Syringa; lilac: green cuttings made in June and 
set in flats indoors; also hardwood cuttings. 

Crimson rambler, yellow rambler, memorial 
(Wichuraiana) and all prairie (setigera) roses; hard 
wood cuttings, of the season's growth, taken in late 
autumn^ held over to callous and planted out in spring. 



102 



XV 



LAWNS 

IT IS an easy and simple matter to establish thick 
green turf if the foundation is well laid, but few 
things in gardening are more hopeless than the attempt 
to make grass grow where the grading aroimd a house 
has been done with the subsoil excavated from its cellar. 
Nothing but weeds can grow in this hard, sterile earth, 
and even these give it up sometimes; for subsoil does 
not contain organic matter — it is what is called inorganic 
soil — and organic matter is necessary to plant life. 

The extra trouble and cost of first removing top 
soil and putting it to one side, in a place by itself, may 
seem a waste, but if this is not done it is not only nec- 
essary to spend two or three times the amount of money 
in efforts to quicken the inorganic soil, but an immense 
amount of precious time as well — and even after all this, 
satisfactory results are rare. 

Subsoil mmst be exposed to the action of the sun 
and rain and air for years before it is mellowed ; and in 
addition to this treatment which only time can give, it 
must have humus, in quantity — decayed organic mat- 
ter, both plant and vegetable. With top soil removed 
first however, to a depth of eight or ten inches — or 

103 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



whatever depth it may show — the grading may be done 
with the subsoil, after construction work is over, and 
then the top soil returned to the top^ where it belongs; 
and the rest is easy. 

Very rich, or very much enriched, soil is not neces- 
sary for a lawn. Fertilizers promote swift growth 
usually, which is just what a lawn ought not to be forced 
to make. Slow and sure suits grass better — and even 
poor soil will support such growth, if the right kind of 
seed for the place is chosen. Of course rich, deep loam 
is the ideal, but there is no reason to be discouraged 
if this is lacking, nor for drawing in quantities of top 
dressing to help out. 

If one is possessed of patience enough to wait a 
season for a lawn, for the sake of its future, a green 
manure crop is an excellent thing to start with. Cow 
peas are perhaps the best of the numerous leguminous 
plants which may be used for this purpose, growing as 
they do on any and all kinds of soil. They should be 
sown about the middle of May, in the latitude of New 
York, and plowed under in the early autumn. On 
clay soil they are best plowed under while green, but 
on sandy, loose soil the vines should be allowed to decay 
before being turned in. 

Farther north where cow peas will not mature their 
seed, field peas, which are sown in the spring, may be 
substituted. These must be sowed a little thicker than 
the former, three pecks to an area of loo x loo feet being 
needed, while of the cow peas two pecks for the same 
plot will be enough. An after treatment of lime at the 

104 



Constant and regular mowing, with occasional rolling, will 
steadily improve turf if the foundation soil is good. Use 
a wooden rake, or, if a steel one, hold the handle almost 
vertically to prevent tearing the grass out by the roots 



LAWNS 



rate of 250 pounds for the plot is advisable if the earth 
is soggy and acid. When angle worms abound in great 
numbers it is a pretty good indication of its being 
needed, badly. 

Grass seeds are offered by the best seedsmen in 
mixtures which will usually do all that is promised for 
them; it is not therefore the part of wisdom for the 
beginner to undertake the working out of a combina- 
tion for himself, for the proportions vary for varying 
conditions. The grasses that are most generally com- 
bined, however, are redtop {agrostis vulgaris), Rhode 
Island bent grass {agrostis canina), English rye (lolium 
perenne) and white clover (trifolium repens). 

These form a most successful mixture for the 
northern states. In the south the Bermuda grass 
{cynodon dactylon) and the awnless brome grass {hro- 
mus inermis) are used extensively because they with- 
stand drought. The so-called Bermuda grass is not 
hardy north of Virginia, however. The famous Ken- 
tucky blue grass is excellent where it is good, but it 
dislikes sour and acid soils, it is slow in establishing 
strong turf, its color fails in hot weather, and 
it is really no better than the right kind of a 
mixture. 

Mixtures for shade, for slopes, for the seaside, for 
arid places, and for establishing especially strong turf 
which will stand tramping without deteriorating, are 
all obtainable of reputable seedsmen. It is simply a 
matter of selecting the necessary kind. 

Seed should be sown on a quiet day, in early spring 

105 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



or fall, but it may of course be sown at any time during 
the summer. Very hot dry weather is naturally un- 
favorable to its germination and growth however, and 
therefore from April first until the middle of May is 
regarded as the best time. Fall sowing may be done as 
late as October, though late September is better. 

Grass seed is easily broadcast by hand, once the 
"hang" of the sifting motion is caught. It should not 
stream back from between the fingers but should be 
scattered from between the ball of the thumb and the 
fingertips, on the palm side of the hand, as the arm is 
swung from side to side. As the sowing ought always 
to be done in two directions, the seed should be divided 
into two parts and one of these used one way, one the 
other. Walk backwards and against the current of air 
which will probably be in evidence when you begin 
scattering the fine seeds, on even the quietest day. 
When all the space is covered thus, in long parallel 
rows, take the remainder of the seed and go over the 
ground again in the same way, but at right angles to the 
first direction. This insures even seeding all over. 

Be liberal with seed. An abundance of grasses 
leaves less chance for weeds to take possession, and fine 
grasses cannot fill rapidly if seeded thinly. For the 
before-mentioned area of loo x loo feet ij bushels 
is none too much. And this should be purchased by 
weight and not by dry measure. A first class lawn 
mixture will weigh well up towards twenty pounds to 
the bushel. 

It is far better to get the recleaned, therefore higher 
io6 



LAWNS 



priced, seed than to waste money and patience on the 
part chaff and part sweepings which help to make up 
the bulk of the cheap grades. The best is none too 
good in the matter of grass seed. 

The lawn surface may be rolled after seeding, but 
this is not essential, particularly if the ground is a little 
damp when the seed is spread. It adheres to the earth 
usually under such conditions, without any firming 
down whatsoever. The very best seed, under the most 
favorable conditions, will produce a growth that ought 
to be clipped with the lawn-mower in about five weeks 
from the time of sowing. This is of course only under 
the most favorable conditions; but cutting may always 
be done sooner than one might anticipate after seeding. 
It ought never to be neglected a day, particularly on a 
new lawn. 

No lawn ought to be shaved down close to the earth; 
two inches is the best height for all sorts of places and 
conditions. But to keep this height, grass must be 
mowed often — sometimes as often as every four or five 
days. This makes it possible to leave the clippings 
where they fall, which it is always highly desirable to do. 
The roots of the grass need the protection as well as the 
nutriment which they afford. 

Go over the lawn in the spring with the roller, in 
two directions, the same as the seed was sov\^n, when 
the frost has been out of the ground long enough for it 
to have dried out somewhat. This will press all the 
roots firmly down after the heaving action of freezing 
and thawing that has gone on all winter; it also 

107 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



smooths its surface, and helps maintain even 
grades. 

The use of even well rotted manure on lawns is 
attended by such a pestilential outbreak of weeds in 
the spring that it is not advised. One application 
will ruin an estabhshed lawn. Bone meal is better, 
or some one of the special lawn fertilizers. These are 
scattered in the same way as seed; from 300 to 500 
pounds of the former should be used for 100 x 100 
feet. Shaded areas under trees will require more 
fertilizing than exposed and open places. 

Neglected lawns may be renovated by raking over 
with a steel rake until the soil is loosened, then seeding 
with about one- half the amount of seed used when sow- 
ing new. But where weeds have really gained the 
upper hand it is better to plow the entire surface up and 
start new. Many old dooryards can be brought out of 
their unkempt and hopeless condition, however, with- 
out a resort to any such heroic measure, by going at 
them early in the spring, reseeding, mowing whenever 
needed, and giving them general careful attention. 



108 



XVI 



BULBS 

BULBS are one of the wonderful adaptations to 
adverse conditions — to conditions which would 
kill vegetation completely if vegetation did not 
adjust itself to meet them — which are constantly to be 
met in Nature. They are really a plant reduced to the 
minimum — to the most consolidated form possible — to 
the sphere, or to an approach to the sphere. This is 
the form exposing the least possible surface ; and that 
surface, in a bulb, is usually well protected. 

Botanically there is a great difference in bulbs, and 
these differences — most of them — are perfectly apparent 
even to the layman. For example, there is the potato 
and the onion: both are bulbs in the generally accepted 
sense of the term, yet one is a solid body and the other 
is made up of scales which wrap around each other. 
Strictly speaking however, only the latter form is a true 
bulb; the other forms are known as rhizomes, tubers 
or corms, according as they are creeping roots tocks, 
thickened, succulent bodies, or solid, like the ''root" of 
a crocus. 

There is no class of plants which will produce such 
109 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



results as bulbs; and produce results so certainly and 
satisfactorily with so little labor devoted to them, and 
so little knowledge of plant culture guiding the planter. 
They furnish not only the early glory of the spring but 
much more besides; indeed they alone might be de- 
pended upon to make a flower garden, if other things 
were not available. 

Of all forms of plant life they are the most easily 
transported from one part of the world to another, 
being to all appearances dead things when they have 
matured and are ready for their long rest. They reach 
this stage usually about midsummer, in the temperate 
parts of the world, and all large dealers therefore issue 
special summer or early autumn catalogues, listing only 
bulbs, so varied are they and so important the position 
which they occupy. 

Unless otherwise specified, bulbs should be planted 
in October or November, the idea being to give them 
time to make good root growth hut not top growth, before 
freezing weather puts them to sleep again. They may 
be set out later than November hov/ever, if the ground 
is not frozen. 

They requhe usually a fairly good soil, but above 
all else they demand that it shall be well drained. 
Without good drainage they simply will not succeed, 
and there is no use in tr}dng to make them. It is a 
waste of time and energy — and money. The sodden- 
ness of hea\y soils may be overcome however by putting 
a quantity of sand or sifted coal ashes under each bulb 
as it is planted, making this cushion deeper according 



no 



BULBS 



as the quality of the soil seems to make it necessary to 
be extraordinarily careful about the drainage. 

No manure ought ever to come in contact with 
bulbs, for it burns and kills them. Some say that well 
rotted manure is safe to use, but it is not easy to be sure 
that it is well enough rotted to be harmless, hence the 
only really safe way is to eliminate it from their actual 
presence. It may be worked into the soil where they 
are to go, well in advance 0} their planting, but even then 
it is wise to keep it from touching them. Bone meal 
is safer to use and has the advantage of being easier to 
incorporate evenly with the earth. 

Do not set bulbs too deep. From an inch to four 
inches beneath the surface is all that they ought ever to 
go, according to their size. An earth covering that is 
one and a half times the bulb's own depth is the right 
distance. After the ground has frozen hard mulch it 
above them with four inches of leaves or litter, to keep 
it from thawing and freezing alternately during the 
changes of the winter. Take this mulch off however, 
very early in the spring — early in March in ordinary 
seasons — so that the tops will not start prematurely 
and be nipped by late frosts. 

Bulbs that may be left where they are planted are 
the only really satisfactory ones to grow, and certainly 
the only kind that the beginner ought ever to attempt. 
But if they must be moved for any reason, always re- 
member that it must be done only when they are dor- 
mant — and the signal of their having reached this state, 
of their having matured or ripened," is the dying 

III 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



down and drying out of their leaves. Never cut the 
leaves away, by- the- way, however badly they may offend 
the fastidious eye, for they are necessary to the bulb's 
maturing. Let them die and shrivel up and dry away 
of themselves. Other things should grow in the bor- 
ders with bulbous plants to hide this unsightly period. 

Usually a better effect is produced wilh a quantity 
of any one kind of bulb than with single plants though 
there are some things, notably Iris, that are luxuriant 
enough in habit to be used in solitary clumps. Cro- 
cuses, Daffodils, Snowdrops, Hyacinths, Narcissi, 
Tulips, LiKes and Iris are probably the most familiar 
bulb plants, and the ones most commonly planted. No 
planting is really complete however that does not in- 
clude, in addition to these, the heavenly b'ue and dainty 
Squills, the old evil-smelling but stately Crown Im- 
perials, and the Wood lily or ^'Wake-robin." And 
there are also Star of Bethlehem and Dog's-tooth 
violet which ought to be everywhere. 

Of all these the Snowdrops and the Squills are the 
only ones that will actually bear naturalizing in close cut 
lawns, notwithstanding the fact that Crocuses are so 
often recommended for this purpose and so frequently 
planted. The frequent mowing of a lawn is too much 
for them, and though they may survive for some time, 
they will not hold their own but will eventually die out. 
The Squills and the Snowdrops however, do not seem 
to mind in the least — they are earlier than the Crocus 
in many places anyway — and not only maintain them- 
selves but multiply and spread, in spite of the lawn- 



112 




There is no class of plants that will produce such con- 
sistently satisfactory results as bulbs. The most impor- 
tant consideration is a well drained location 



BULBS 



mower. Snowdrops must be in partial shade, owing 
to the sensitiveness of their bulbs to the burning heat 
of the summer sun on the ground above them. It bakes 
them to such a degree that they cannot endure it, but are 
fairly consumed. 

All of the bulbs listed in the planting table which 
follows are hardy, and consequently require no more 
care after being planted than the general directions 
specify. But a word about the storing of bulbs in 
winter may not be amiss, for many gardeners, even 
beginners, are willing to take the trouble which tender 
bulbs make necessary for the sake of the flowers which 
they produce. Everyone loves Dahlias, for example, 
and indeed well they may, for their flowers come at a 
season when flowers are most welcome, they produce 
them freely, and they last a long time. 

Solid bulbs are less troublesome to keep than the 
scaly ones, though the latter are no very great bother. 
But they do require to be kept from the air, or at least 
from too much air; it dries and shrivels them, and once 
dried and shrivelled, their vitality is sapped beyond a 
season's repair, if not beyond repair altogether. No 
bulbs should ever be packed away from the air entirely, 
however, not even these ; a number of things may happen 
if they are. They may rot, or they may start to grow, 
or they may mold or sweat — and all of these are very 
bad, of course. 

All hardy bulbs should be stored in a cellar or 
room where there is fresh air, and the average winter 
temperature is about 40° F. Put the solid bulbs — the 

113 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



potato-like bulbs — away from the light in a basket or 
a shallow box with a piece of wire screening for the 
bottom. Bury the scaly bulbs in leaf mold or moist sand 
in boxes without covers. Rhizomes and thickened- 
root forms may be kept in the same way, in sand, 
sphagnum moss or leaf mold. Be sure that the tem- 
perature does not run higher than the stipulated degrees : 
it may better go lower, if anything. Warmth, even a 
little of it, is likely to start hardy bulbs into growth 
prematurely. 

Tender bulbs require at least ten degrees more 
warmth than the highest temperature suitable for the 
hardy fellows — that is, a tem-perature of at least 50° F. 
The solid bulbs of this division, after dndng for a month, 
should be kept buried in dry sand or ashes; the scaly 
or coated bulbs, and the rhizome forms, may be shaken 
free of earth and \\Tapped in paper or put into paper 
bags, tied up, and hung up where it is dry and uni- 
formJy of the required even warmth. Look out for mice, 
for they have a great taste for this form of vegetable 
during the v/inter m-onths. 

Kept properly, bulbs may remain out of the ground 
for many months without injur}-, but no bulb should 
ever be permitted to stay out of its natural element a 
moment longer than the season demands. The place 
for them is in the dirt: even when they are dormant, 
they are better off there, if it is possible to leave them 
there. The only reason for not doing so is the suscepti- 
bility of the foreigners to our rigorous climate. 

Bulbs of full size only are worth buying. Seconds 

114 



BULBS 



cannot produce anything but second-class plants, for 
the reason that they are not fully matured when they 
are dug, hence have had to be graded as ''seconds" or 
small size. There are still lower gradations, but they 
are not worth considering at all, unless one is willing 
to wait several years. For naturalizing on a large scale 
they may do, but even for this it is better not to take 
anything lower than a second. 

Some bulbous plants require as many as six years 
to arrive at their full maturit}\ Naturally bulbs that 
have been cared for this length of time by the grower 
are not the cheapest to the purchaser: which is only 
another way of saying that good bulbs are sometimes 
seemingly expensive. But their cost is not so great as 
it seems, for they give results, as already pointed out, 
proportionately greater than any other kind of flower, 
with less trouble and care, — especially the hardy kinds. 
So it is real economy after all, to buy the largest size, 
and the best bulbs obtainable, from the best dealer. 



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Usually Dormant 


August to October. 


October to March. 


August to November. 


August to November. 


October to April. 


Bulbs, August to 
November. Rhi- 
zomes, October to 
April. 


August to November. 


September to April. 


October to April. 


October to April. 


Remarks 


Naturalize in meadow grass, or 
plant in border or in clumps, any- 
where. 


Set tubers vertically, under li 
inches of earth ; plant in colonies, 
in part shade. 


Set the bulbs under 3 inches of 
earth and 6 inches apart, in bor- 
der. 


Set bulbs under 2 inches of 
earth, 5 inches apart, in border. 


Give partial shade; thin and 
replant every four years; in bor- 
der or naturalized among trees or 
shrubs. 


In clumps anywhere, or natur- 
alized near water. 


There are finer, showier forms, 
well known in England, but hard 
to get at present, here. j 


Clumps of 6 or more in border; 
mulch well in winter. 


There are four varieties which 
will extend the season of bloom 
throughout the summer. 


Same as crocus; must have a 
dry and sunny place; plant under 
3 inches of earth. 


Bloom ' 


Late April 


April-May 


April-May 


April-May 


May 


May-June 


May-June 


May-June 


June to Sept. 


September 


O 
OQ 


Bavy preferred 


Deep, moist 




'dinary 


•dinary 


•dinary 


■dinary 1 


•dinary 


'dinary 


eavy required 




W 




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ptember 


) vember 
r in sprint 


tober 


stober 


avember 


lat of 
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jtober 


Jtober 


ite Octobf 
Novembe 


5 vember 








O 


O 






O 


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o 




< 
5? 


Narcissus poeticua 
(poet's Narcissus) 


Trillium grandiflorum 
(wood lily, wake-robin) 


Hyacinths, in variety 


Tulips, in variety 


Convallaria majalis 
(Uly-of-the-vaUey) 


Iris, in variety 

(two forms of bulbs) 


Ornithogalum umbellatum 
(star of Bethlehem) 


Anthericums 

(St. Bernard's Uly or 
St. Bruno's lily) 


Hemerocallis, in variety 
(day lily, lemon lily) 


Sternbergia lutea 
(autumn daffodil) 



117 



XVII 



ALL KINDS OF GARDENS 
^HERE are five kinds o{ places in the world which 



A offer difficulties in the way of gardening that 
the amateur is likely to feel are insurmountable. 
These are rocky ledges; wet, marshy spots; sand dunes 
or their equivalent; shady places; and a hillside so nearly 
vertical that even the earth hardly sticks to it. But 
nothing is insurmountable — there is something that 
will grow in every place in the world — except possibly 
on the perfectly bare face of a rock — never doubt that. 

The reasons which account for failure in gardening 
therefore, are the same reasons that account for failure 
in other undertakings — lack of study of conditions, and 
failure to adapt our endeavors to them, after they are 
studied — to those, at least, which are unalterable. 
For certain natural conditions are unalterable, in the 
main. Springs cannot be dried up, nor rivers turned 
from their courses ordinarily ; the sandy earth which has, 
in some long gone age, been the bed of the sea, cannot 
be transformed into the rich loam of river bottom-lands ; 
stern, rock-ribbed mountain- sides cannot be dissolved 
into the softness of smiling fields. These, and some 
other things, we cannot change. 




ALL KINDS OF GARDENS 



But we can learn to adapt ourselves and our en- 
deavors to the conditions which they afford — these 
conditions which we must accept. There is no reason 
for giving up just because everything does not happen 
to be favorable to the garden things which are most 
common, hence most familiar. 

After all, the things that are really familiar are a 
compararatively small number, considering that the 
average dealer's catalogue may list from five hundred 
to six hundred species. And each of these is probably 
offered in not less than three varieties and several are 
offered in many more than that number. This means 
not less than fifteen hundred plants, at the lowest 
figure; hence it is easy to see that a liberal estimate of 
the proportion that may be called "familiar" to most 
persons will fix the number at not more than ten per cent 
of the total — otherwise from one hundred and fifty kinds 
up. On the basis of this estimate therefore, there are 
still remaining thirteen hundred and fifty varieties, 
representing four hundred and fifty species, to become 
acquainted with. Out of these be sure there are many 
lovely, unheard-of things that will grow in the seemingly 
impossible places. 

So after all there may be as many kinds of garden 
as there are kinds of places — instead of just a ''hardy" 
garden and an "old-fashioned" garden. But note that 
these several kinds, natives of unusual places, should be 
only adopted where natural conditions force the choice 
of them; these plants will not thrive in ordinary garden 
soil and conditions any better than the plants from the 

119 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



ordinary garden will thrive in the unusual conditions 
which special places present. The rockeries" which 
men make ordinarily — those monstrosities of piled-up 
stones, gracing (?) a corner or the center of a lawn — are 
no more suitable for the growth of naturally rock-loving 
plants than the heart of the woods is suitable for growing 
green corn. Think how unhappy the wild, free, shy 
things from the mountain must be in such a spot — as 
bad as the animals in a zoo! You do not believe that 
plants can be unhappy ? Well — I do. 

Rockeries — or preferably, rock gardens — should 
be of necessity, not of choice. Where the only space 
available for gardening is boulder land, sparsely covered 
with earth in places — in crannies and pockets and de- 
pressions — and altogether bare in places, where trees 
cling by long, strong roots that clutch at the stone, find- 
ing every cranny and pocket and working their tenacious 
way into it, there is the place for a rock garden — there is 
a rock garden, willy-nilly. Or where a bed of stones — 
round stones and odd shaped, of varying sizes — mark 
the course of some long-forgotten stream, here again is 
a rock garden — of a different character to be sure, but 
nevertheless a rock garden and nothing else. 

Ground that is like a sponge, oozing water at every 
step, from springs that rise beneath it, is so difficult 
to imitate that artificial ''boggeries" (thank fortune!) 
are unknown. And usually such ground is avoided by 
all those who have a choice given them — ^but some there 
be who have it thrust upon them. These are rather 
discouraged mortals — and small wonder if they have 

120 





utilizing natural resources is one great secret of garden 
success. K you have rocky land, plant it with rock- 
loving plants 



ALL KINDS OF GARDENS 



not mastered the situation by finding the key, some way, 
somehow. 

Nothing will grow there but the things that like 
it — that is the key; and these will flourish mightily — 
that is the reward, ivlake walks through such a garden 
of large, flat stepping-stones, laid on a bed of small 
stones, if they seem likely to sink below the requisite 
level without some support. 

The deserts of our great southwest furnish a 
species of plants which blossom like the rose, and which, 
having learned through ages of life there to love the 
hot sun and the hot dry sand, afford garden material 
for hopelessly sandy regions. These are the cacti — 
strange, ungracious in form, looking often more like 
some queer animals than like plants, yet bearing flowers 
of wonderful beauty and often of enormous size. Com- 
monly they are grown only as house-plants, but there 
are several hardy kinds which will endure northern 
winters, even though they are heat lovers. An outdoor 
collection of these, well arranged, will furnish an inter- 
esting and beautiful garden on practically clear sand. 

The steep barren hillsides where plants wash out 
as fast as they are planted, may be conquered by break- 
ing them into terraces, held either by walls or by some 
strong, fibrous-rooted and root- spreading plant which, 
carpeting their slope, holds the earth firmly in spite of 
the wash of rains. 

The ordinary hardy garden, on ordinary garden 
soil, presents no special problem to the beginner — but 
it does try his patience most woefully. Waiting for 

121 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



results is probably the hardest thing that the inexperi- 
enced have to contend with. Those who do not know 
from actual experience in gardening the time it takes 
to get results equal to the vision of the mind's eye, 
have usually an unhappy season finding out. 

But, for the comfort of these, there is the "hurry- 
up" garden, to tide them over. Let none be persuaded 
to regard annuals as more than this however, else each 
year's spring will find them just where they were the 
year before — and the "mind's-eye visions" will never 
come true. As a make- shift for first years however — 
and after that as incidents, scattered here and there 
among other things where spaces need filling tempo- 
rarily — annuals are a godsend. They have the advan- 
tage too, of being easier to raise from seed, ordinarily, 
than the long-lived but slow growing perennials. 
Thus they are excellent material for a beginning. 

The perennials given in the list appended however, 
may all be raised from seed, and are not difiicult to deal 
with. The time for sowing has not been given because 
all perennials require practically the same treatment and 
should be planted at the same time. They devote a 
year's time usually to becoming established — to their 
own growth — before they undertake to reproduce them- 
selves. Therefore they do not blossom ordinarily 
until the second year, no matter how early the seed may 
be put in the ground in the spring. But there are some 
exceptions to this: these are marked with an asterisk 
in the margin, and may be treated as if they were annuals 
— that is, they may be sown after all danger of frost is 

122 



ALL KINDS OF GARDENS 



past, out-of-doors where they to grow, and the seedlings 
thinned out, after they are up enough to be recognizable, 
to the required number per square foot. 

For the others the best way is to sow them in a bed 
that is not exposed to full sun — if it is it will be necessary 
to make a screen of lath nailed to a frame the size of the 
bed, having four legs or uprights to stand on, that can 
be put over the bed during the daytime. This is simple 
enough and insures always the same degree of the sun. 
The surface of a seed bed should be raised four inches 
above the level of the ground ; and it should have a fine 
soft, mellow soil spread over it to receive the seeds. 

After everything is ready, sprinkle the bed thor- 
oughly, put the screen over it, and leave it until the next 
day. Then draw shallow rows across it for the seeds — 
these rows need not be more than three inches apart, 
or even two, if space is at a premium — put them in as 
thick as the directions on each particular packet specify, 
cover them gently — by simply pressing the entire surface 
of the bed down with the float — with what seems to be 
three times their depth of earth, unless the directions 
give a definite depth — water them in with a fine sprayer, 
sprinkle the bed all over with a thin "dusting" of fine 
dry soil, and put the screen on if the sun shines. 
Take if off at night, unless there is beating rain in 
progress or in sight. 

Keep the bed evenly moistened the same as directed 
for a flat; thin out the seedlings until they stand two 
inches apart, which gives them room to grow stiff and 
stocky — and transplant them to their permanent quarters 

123 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



when they are three inches high. Observe all that has 
been said about transplanting when the time for this 
operation arrives. 

The months of July and August are probably the 
best in which to raise seedlings of perennials out-of- 
doors, though they may of course be started in the spring 
if one wishes, just as other plants are started. There 
will be no gain in time of bloom however, for the July 
or August plants will bloom the second year quite as 
well as the earlier ones. 



124 



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C 03 



'-^ a-g 
a II 



a 

d 

O 03 



<u o 



9 Q 



°t2 



^ « 



P 
5-^ 



a a 
S3 



I2g 



CO 



O 



OS 



Remarks 


No special beauty 
in flowers, but very 
fragrant. Annual. 


Plant in clumps in 
border or anywhere. 
Annual. 


Masses in border. 
Annual. 


Foliage fragrant ; 
fine edging plant. An- 
nual. 


Get "Marguerite" 
strain; use in long 
borders. Annual. 


Two sowings for 
succession of bloom; 
clumps or masses. An- 
nual. 


In clumps or long 
borders, or masses in 
border. Annual. 


OF 


Pi 


1 

d 
o 












1 




Color 


Blue, in( 
spicuous 


White 


Various 




Lavendei 
blue 


Various 


Yellowisl 
green 


Purple 


Time of 

Flowering 


July on 


July on 


July to 
frost 


July on 


June on 


June on 


June on 


Distance 
Apart 


6 inches 


18 to 24 
inches 


12 inches 


6 inches 


8 inches 


10 inches 


8 inches 


3HT 


03 

a> 

r! 


2 to 3 feet 


V 

-d 




V 




s 

M 


m 
M 


Hek 


6 incl 


18 in< 




9 incl 


10 to 
inchei 


u 
_d 


12 im 




Outdoors 


May 


May 


May 


May 


April 


July 




So 


Indoors 






March 




February 


April 


April 


Require- 
ments 


No special 


No special 


Any rich 
soil 


Any soil, 
part shade 


Rich soil 


No special 


Light, rich 
soil, plenty 
of water 


Name 


bicornis 

g scented stocks) 


affinis 
se-flowered 

>) 3 


I incana, annua 
Dwer, ten-week 




azurea setosa 
woodruff) 


in variety 
pink) 


n variety 
nette) 


)ium Peruvlanum 
r pie, heliotrope) 






Matthiola 
(evenin 


Nicotinia 
(tuberc 
tobaccc 


Matthiolg 
(gillyfl< 
stocks) 


d§ 

< 


Dia,nthus 
(clove 


Reseda, i 
(Mignc 


Heliotror 
(cherrj 



130 



s 

2 


ises along 
or among 
Perennial, 


Use in masses any- 
where. Perennial. 


used as a 
in clumps. 

but must 
with leaves 




Remj 


In mas 
border, 
shrubbery. 


May be 
hedge or i 
Perennial, 
be covered 
in winter. 




Color of 
Flower 


White, lilac, 
purple 


Yellow 


Lavender 




o 
<=« 


o ^ 










June 1 
Augus 


AprU 


July £ 
Augus 




Distance 
I Apart 


o 


m 

<u 


jhes 




15 to 
inche! 


« 


12 im 




SIGHT 


) 3 feet 


Lches 


feet 




w 




.a 








CO 








member 


tember 


tember 






doors 






Out 


Sepi 


Sep1 


Sep- 




o 
m 


Indoors 










K 


2 


special 


jcial 


dry 






a 






a w 
w a 


No£ 


Noi 


la 






riesperis matronalis 
(dame's rocket) 


Primula veris 
(cowslip) 


Lavendula vera 
(sweet lavender) 





131 



.2 oJ 



sa.9 



as 



J o • ' 
u »4 



-go 

OQ be I 



b 3 



1^ 



«3 S 



X2 

m o 



aw 



3ga I 



>• OQ 

a 



S 

^ a 

H cj 

^ OQ 



I 

li 



1? 



5:5 



I 

o 

il 

as a 



1^ 



6 



d b S 



132 



Remarks 


Successive sowings for 
successive bloom; the pink 
is fine for edging. 


Everlastings; in clumps 
here and there. 


Clumps, in border or 
against shrubbery. 


Clumps; good also in- 
doors in winter. 


Borders, or drooping over 
walls or raiUngs. 


Masses ; the weakest seed- 
lings produce finest flowers ; 
self -sows. 


Carpet growth under tall 
plants or over arid spots; 
use in single colors, as reds 
sometimes clash. 


Masses; "Emperor" is a 
particxilarly fine variety. 


Borders and masses ; fine 
for cut flowers. 


In borders, clumps or as 
boundary edging. 


Groups, borders, hedge 
effects, and massed against 
shrubbery. 


Color 


Various 


i 
> 


Shrimp 
pink 


White I 


Yellows, 
reds 


Varioua 


Various 


Various 


Various 


Scariet 


Various 


Time op 
Flowering 


June on 


July on 


July on 


July to frost 


July to frost 


July on 


July on 


July on 


Eariy July 


July to frost 

- 


July on 


Distance 
Apart 


6 to 8 
inches 


12 inches 


12 inches 


10 inches 


8 inches 

. _ 


12 inches 


10 inches 


12 inches 


12 inches 


12 inches 


12 inches 


Height 


10 inches 


2 feet 


2 feet 


18 inches 


Climbing 
and dwarf 


18 inches 


6 inches 


18 inches 


2 feet 


3 feet 


2 feet 


Sow 


Outdoora 


April. 
May, 
June 


May 


May 


May 


May 1 


May 


Late May 


May 1 


May 


May 


May 1 


Indoors 












April 




March 






March 


Require- 
ments 


Any soil, full 

eun 


Rich soil, 
sun 


No special 


No special 


Sun and good 
drainage 


Good soil, 
full sun 


Poor, sandy 
soil, full sun 


Deep, Ught, 
rich loam 


No special 


No special 


Ordinary 
soil 


Name 


Gypsophila muralia 
(baby's breath) 


Helichrysum monstrosum 
(straw flower) 


Lavatera trimestria 
(annual mallow) 


Matricaria Capensis 
(feverfew) 


Nasturtium, in variety 


Petunia, in variety 


Portulaca, in variety 


Salpiglossis, in variety 
j (painted tongue) 


Scabiosa, in variety 
(mourning bride, sweet 
scabious, etc.) 


Salvia splendens 
(salvia, scarlet sage) 


Zinnia, in variety 
(youth-and-old-age) 



133 



O M 



eJ=3 



a 

"I 



in 



I 



03 

>■ 0) 



00 <u 

6§ 



a; a> 

a 



S c3 



0) 

o 

O 



.•a 

oTS, 
3§ 



11 



o 

I* 



If 

1^ 



J2 

3 <u 



a-H 



,o a 



-aT. 
aiM 



a a 

boa 



> 
a 

oj"5 

m O 

P-a 

>. 

«^ 

a> o 



05 «^ 

is 



.2 ^ 
a o 

o o 
o a 



a. a 

03 3 
a; o 

<1 



S 9 

a o3 

•.-3 e> 
a 



a s 

o 



ll 

-a 

ag 



3 o 
(3 



134 



Remarks 


Borders, long lines or masses 
any-where. 


Masses in border. 


Masses at back of border. 


Masses in border. 


Masses in border; do not 
transplant after they are once 
settled ; best to sow them where 
they are to grow. 


In masses, as ground cover, 
or edging. Protect a Uttle with 
leaves during winter. 


Masses, in border. 


Masses anywhere ; do not let 
seed form, as they stop bloom- 
ing when allowed to seed; bow 
where they are to grow. 


Masses. 


Masses in border or anywhere. 






















o 


Color 


White, re( 


Yellows, 
crimsons 


YeUows 


Coral reds 


White, ros 
blue 


Blue 


Various 


Various 


Varioua 


Rosy whil 


Time op 
Flowering 


June, July 


July to frost 


August on 


July on 


June to 
September 


May and June 


June and July 


May on, if 

picked 


May, June and 
again in Sept. 


Jime on 


» 


09 

<u 


Ji 


Ji 


S 




les 


n 
a 
Ji 




00 
l-C 


les 




Sinct 


12 im 


24 inc 


Ji 
u 

.S 

00 


12 to 
inche! 


6 incl 


15 in( 


8 incl 


12 to 
inche! 


8 incl 


Height 


20 inches 


24 inches 


5 to 6 feet 


12 inches 


2 to 5 feet 


6 to 8 
inches 


3 feet 


12 inches 


2 to 4 feet 


15 inches 


i 

a 

B 
a 


No special 


No special 


No special 


Ordinary soil 


Rich loam; dislikes 
lime 


Moist half-shade, or 
full sun if not dry 


Good soU 


No special 


No special 


No special 


Name 


Dianthus barbatus 
(sweet WiUiam) 


*GaiUardia, in variety 
(blanket flower) 


Helenium, in variety 
(sneeze wort) 


Heuchera sanguinea 
(alum root, coral bells) 


Lupinus polyphyllus, in 
variety 
(lupine) 


♦Myosotis palustris 
(forget-me-not) 


Phlox decussata 
(phlox) 


♦Pap aver nudicaule 
(Iceland poppy) 


Pyrethrum, in variety 


Saponaria 

(bouncing Bet) 



135 



XVIII 



THE HOTBED AND THE COLDFRAME 

EVERY garden beginner is eager to begin at once — 
to have things growing as soon as possible — and 
so, because a hotbed will advance the season anywhere 
from eight to ten weeks, he will of course wish to make 
one, when the time comes. They are simple enough 
to build, so there is no reason why he should not: 
follow the directions — that is all. They are simple 
enough to run, too — follow the directions again; and 
no garden can be regarded as completely equipped 
until it has one. 

A hotbed is really a forcing house on a very small 
scale — a place where plants may be grown in advance 
of the open season by means of heat artificially 
supplied to them. This heat may be carried under^ 
neath the bed by steam or hot v/ater pipes — but that is 
the bothersome and expensive way — or it may be 
furnished by placing the bed upon a mound of fer- 
menting manure. This is the easiest and usual way, 
and the only one that need concern the beginner. 

Fresh manure from the stables of grain-fed horses, 
mixed with one-third bedding straw (this latter length- 
ens the heating period), should first be piled in 

136 



THE HOTBED AND THE COLDFRAME 



the protected spot chosen for the bed's location — a 
place where the north winds cannot reach. If the 
manure is dry, sprinkle it with tepid water to start 
decomposition. 



Cross-section diagram of a Hotbed. 



Steam will begin to rise from the pile in from three 
to five days. As soon as it appears have it well worked 
over, turning the outside inside and bringing the inside 
to the surface — then let it alone to warm up again. 
This will take two or three days more — the presence 
of the steam will indicate that it is ready, when the 
work may proceed. 

Spread the manure evenly over an area large 
enough to give a full two-foot margin all around outside 
the sash or sashes. Make it i8 inches deep — this for 
the latitude of New York City; have it proportionately 
deeper and broader in colder locaKties — and pack it 
firmly. On this flat pile set the frame to carry the sash. 

This frame is a bottomless and topless box made 
of two-inch planks; it should slope on top from a 
height of about 12 inches at the front to 18 or 24 inches 
at the back, with the sides slanted to conform to the 
slope. Its ground dimensions are regulated by the 

137 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



size of the sash it is to have as its top or covering — so, 
as a matter of fact, the first thing to do in making a 
hotbed is to get the sash. 

Any old sash will do, whatever its shape or size. 
Glazed for a window, it will doubtless leak when put 
to this more trying use, but if it is reasonably tight 
the plants under it will not suffer. Lacking a dis- 
carded sash, regulation hotbed sash will, of course, be 
necessary, but these are inexpensive. They are glazed 
differently, however, from the ordinary window-sash — 
and the way of doing it ought to be among the gar- 
dener's accomplishments, for breakage is apt to occur. 

The bars of these sash run lengthwise only, as 
you will see from the accomxpan3dng illustration, and 
are "rabbeted" to receive the glass. Spread soft 
putty along this rabbet, then, starting at the bottom 
of the sash, press the first pane down into the putty; 
fasten it with brads — the glazing points are not 
strong enough. Let the pane lap over the wood at the 
bottom rail half an inch, forming a watershed, and lap 
each succeeding pane over the preceding one by half 
an inch, in the way shingles are overlapped in roofing. 
A brad under each lower corner will keep the panes 
from slipping down. 

With the hotbed placed upon the packed manure 
(the back or high end to the north always), proceed 
to bank up on the outside with more manure — quite up 
to the level of the lower or front edge. Then spread 
the soil, which is to be the actual seed bed, inside, 
making it from four to eight inches deep according to 

138 



THE HOTBED AND THE COLDFRAME 



what you intend to grow. The shallower depth is 
quite sufl&cient for salad or for flower plants — only 
radishes and deeper growing root crops require the 
deeper bed. The planting soil of the hotbed should 
be rich and soft and friable — good garden earth with 
a mixture of sand is best. 

Put the sash on the bed, and let it heat up the 
earth inside. It will be hot for three or four days — 
much too hot, at first, for any planting. Keep a 
thermometer inside the frame; do not begin planting 
until it drops to 90° F. or less. 

As the plants must remain in the bed for two 
months it is necessary to thin out the seedlings as they 
grow, to make room. This should be done as soon as 
they appear in order to give the ones spared plenty of 
room to develop, right from the start. Some of the 
plants may later be transferred to the coldframe if it 
is too early for them to go out into the garden and the 
hotbed becomes overcrowded. 

The hotbed should be watered with a sprinkler, 
keeping the soil just moist enough to crumble apart 
slowly after being squeezed in the hand, as described 
in the chapter on soil. Be sure that the sash is 
always in place after you have tended the bed — for- 
getting to replace it will result in plant tragedy. And 
be sure to ventilate the hotbed on warm days by 
raising the sash ever so Kttle, or by slipping it down in 
the middle of the day, — between 1 1 .30 and i .30 o'clock, 
when the sim is shining directly on the glass. 

Till the soil of the hotbed as you would anywnere 
139 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



in the garden — only do not keep the sash o& for any 
length of time. Reach under to do the work. Nasty 
little green things that look Hke lice will probably 
appear — beastly, soft, smushy aphids they are. 
They revel in hotbeds, but a solution made of one- 
quarter pound of white soap dissolved in a little boiling 
water and then reduced in strength by adding five 
gallons of water, used tepid in a sprayer, will make 
short work of them. They will come again, no doubt 
— but vigilance will save the crop from their devas- 
tating armies. Fortunately they die easily — almost as 
easily as they come. They are often on the under side 
of leaves and unsuspected until the leaf curls — and 
then unseen because of their color. Keep a sharp watch 
for them. Other insect and fungous pests and how to 
get rid of them have had their own chapter. 

A mat of straw or several thicknesses of burlap 
should be provided to cover the sash on cold nights — 
and it is seldom wise to build the bed before the last 
week of February or the early part of March. If 
ready by March loth you will find it early enough 
for all practical purposes — and the plants in it will be 
big fellows by the time the ground is warm enough 
outside to receive them. 

Unless the space it occupies is needed during the 
summer the bed may be left and used for a cold frame 
in the fall, for lettuce or other salad plants, or hardy 
annuals. The coldframe differs from the hotbed in 
that it is constructed without an underbed of heat pro- 
ducing materials. It is not used for forcing seeds into 

140 



THE HOTBED AND THE COLDFRAME 



germination nor plants into premature growth, but 
only to provide protection from cold and wind for 
plants already growing — therefore it does not, of 
course, need heating. 

The coldframe is a frame made exactly like the 
hotbed frame; but it is set on top of the ground instead 
of being sunk into it. It has the same protective 
sash as covering, and may be banked up a little on 
the outside with earth, to shut out water. Its useful- 
ness makes it second only to the hotbed as a bit of 
garden equipment — ^indeed it supplements the work of 
the hotbed besides doing its own particular work, for 
it receives into its shelter the plants thinned out from 
the hotbed — ^plants that would otherwise be lost. 
Here they stay until the outdoors is warm enough 
to receive them. 

Proof against cold the coldframe must be; this 
quality is its only excuse for being. Therefore it must 
be well and carefully constructed; its joints must be 
tight and not admit the shiftiest and most penetrating 
wind, and it should stand where trees or buildings 
give it their protection from the north. 

By means of a coldframe, too, many plants may 
be "wintered over" that would otherwise perish 
utterly, and very young salad plants may be trans- 
planted to it in the autumn from the garden, and 
furnish salad well into the winter — sometimes indeed 
all through it. Melons and cucumbers may be started 
in it in spring rather than in the hotbed; the hotbed 
forces them into too early growth and they require 

141 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



outdoor quarters long before it is safe to put them out, 
but the coldframe nurses them along deliberately so 
that when they can go out they are just about ready 
to. Thus a big gain is made, for instead of waiting 
for seed to germinate out-of-doors after the last 
frost has surely gone, the little plants are set out, 
already growing and vigorous. 



142 



XIX 



GARDEN TOOLS 



^HE list of tools and appliances which are necessary 



A to the comfort and convenience of the gardener- 
in-a-small-way, comprises sixteen or seventeen articles. 
A few more that are highly desirable bring the number 
up to twenty-two. If the space under cultivation is 
large enough to warrant the addition to these of a 
wheel hoe, by all means include it in the outfit. It will 
not do away with the need for the common hoe and 
rake and spade, for frequently they are indispensable; 
but it does lighten the labor of tilling the soil to an 
unbelievable degree. 

It is useful too, even in a very small garden, if the 
vegetable rows have space enough at their ends to admit 
of turning around with it outside the garden limits. 
Where they run close up to a fence this is of course 
impossible; consequently the wheel hoe is not of much 
service in such restricted garden plots. But if land is 
not at a great premium it is worth while to leave a 
margin around a vegetable patch for just this purpose. 
The saving in labor — and fatigue — is worth the sacrifice 
in garden space, for the complete seeder, hoe, cultivator 
and plow of the wheel hoe make gardening only fun. 




THE GARDEN PRIMER 



The following are the things necessan^, with or 
without the wheel hoe: 



The pick may not be necessar}^ in fine light soils, 
but where there is any deep digging, or transplanting 
of large shrubs or young trees to be done, it is a time, as 
well as patience, saver. The shovel, spade and spad- 
ing fork each serve a purpose, according to the work 
in hand, the first being stronger and suitable to heavier 
work, especially to the digging up of anything, or the 
shifting of earth. The spade is for " spading" pure and 
simple — for turning over soil — and for cutting sod. 
It should not be used for hard digging. The spading 
fork is for turning over soil and breakmg it up — pul- 
verizing it — also for handling loose matter like dead 
leaves, manure and compost. 

Good, old-fashioned garden tools are all of them 
pretty good, but the heart-shaped hoe is decidedly an 
improvement over the old broad-nosed common hoe, 
for it will do work that the latter will not, and all that 
it will besides. The pointed tip is a great advantage, 

144 



Pick. 



Wheelbarrow. 

Spray Syringe (for liquid). 

Powder Gun. 

Raffia (bunch). 

Stakes, 

Labels (large and small) 
Line. 

Two 10 -foot Measuring Poles. 
Lawn-mower. 
Lawn Shears. 
Lawn Roller. 



Shovel (round point). 

Spade (square). 

Spading Fork. 

Hoe (heart-shaped). 

Rake (steel). 

Dibble. 

Float. 

Pruning Shears (French). 

Trowel. 

Hand Weeder. 



GARDEN TOOLS 



working in where the square one cannot — and turned 
on its side it will draw up quite as good a ''hill" with 
no more work. 

The rake is a cultivator as well, indispensable for 
the surface tillage that is so essential to the garden's 
health and welfare. The dibble and the float have been 
described and their uses explained, in an earlier chapter. 
Pruning shears are required for snipping off even 
small branches, else the bark may be stripped. It is 
never well to try and pull or break even a twig from 
a branch, for some things have such tough bark that 
it will never yield, but will strip the length of a branch. 

The trowel is for close-up hand work, likewise the 
hand weeder — both are needed among flowers especially. 
The liquid spray syringe and the powder gun are most 
important — indeed, almost everything else might be 
omitted, if one had to, but certainly not these. Raffia, 
which is soft yet tough, comes in great bunches, for 
tying up the things that need to be tied. Stakes are 
necessary for locating things as well as for supporting 
those plants which require it. Labels in the form of 
stakes are needed for the vegetable and flower garden, 
and smaller labels, to tie onto plants or to stick down 
into the flats or the beds where seeds are sown, made of 
wood so light that they will not weigh down a branch, 
are a necessity to the fastidious, helping to keep things 
neat and uniform, as they do. Any little stick will 
answer of course, if one feels that way, but smooth little 
labels are easily home-made. 

Fifty feet of strong, hard- twisted line is none too 

145 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



much — a large garden will need to have two pieces 
this length — or one long piece if it is kept on a reel and 
taken proper care of. The measuring poles are very 
often of more use than line however, within short dis- 
tances. There should be two, each ten feet long and 
each laid off in one foot spaces, plainly marked with a 
black line across them. For placing shrubbery accord- 
ing to a planting plan, or for placing any plants of which 
there are many to go in near together, they are of great 
help. The two are laid on the ground at right angles 
to each other, tips touching, embracing within their 
angle the space to be planted. Several plants can then 
be located ^'by eye," taking the distance on each of 
them and placing a stake at the point of intersection 
of the lines (imaginary) running from the poles. 

Lawn-mower and shears are acknowledged as 
necessities, but some may question the lawn roller. - 
This is not necessary to be sure, if you know where you 
can borrow one ; otherwise it certainly is, else the lawn 
cannot be properly cared for. After the freezing and 
heaving of winter there are always irregularities which 
only a heavy roller can smooth out; and these get 
worse by running the mower over them, so that the 
surface is soon utterly spoiled. 



146 



XX 



SOME GENERAL GARDEN TALK 

THE person who is beginning to garden does not 
always want to begin at the actual beginning 
of gardening — obviously. Even though he is willing 
to pass through all the long apprenticeship which 
the craft demands, there may be things, requiring to be 
done at once, that are way in advance of the first year's 
work. These we will try to consider here. 

Let us suppose that an old lilac bush is in the wrong 
place; what is to be done to get it into the right one, 
without killing it ? If the time is summer there is just 
one thing to be done, above all others — that is, wait for 
the falling of the leaf and ripening of the wood. Never 
move any old and established woody plant while it is 
in leaf; move such things only during their dormant 
season. 

Then first of all dig the hole to receive it — big and 
broad and deep. Be generous about it. After this 
is done, to the plant itself: in digging it up, work 
patiently. Here the pick will be most serviceable; 
loosen the soil thoroughly with it before taking any 
out with the shovel. Work always parallel with the 
outstanding roots of the plant — that is, parallel with a 

147 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



line coming from the plant, as a spoke comes from the 
center of a wheel. This insures striking down with 
both pick and shovel, between main roots instead of 
across them: thus it sacrifices less of them. Begin 
on the line of an imaginary circle drawn around the 
plant, as large as the spread of its branches. Commonly 
this will be the line of the spread of the roots as well. 
Take off the earth above the roots until they are 
loosened; then work them out gradually, taking off 
or picking loose as much more as necessary to release 
them without strain. Never pull or ^'yank" a shrub 
or anything else out of the ground; work things out, 
digging around and under the roots if need be. Tilt 
a plant back and forth and loosen the earth thoroughly 
away down, before attempting to lift it or drag it forth. 
There should be no violence done it, either in branch 
or root. 

When it is finally released, take it at once to the 
place prepared for it and lay it down so that the roots 
may be examined and trimmed. No matter how 
carefully the work is done, there will be some broken 
and torn places — and these must be cut into smooth, 
even stumps, else they leave room for rot and disease 
to get a foothold. Trim off every broken or even badly 
bruised rootbranch: then go to the other end of the 
bush and trim off as much of its top, proportionately, 
as it has been necessary to remove of its roots. 

Now fit it into its new quarters. Take great care 
that there are no roots turned underneath it, for these will 
hold it up and away from the earth on which it should 

148 



SOME GENERAL GARDEN TALK 



rest, so that it will be in the state known to experts as 
''hung" — which is fatal to its ever being any sort of 
plant again, if it does not kill it altogether. Some 
things send out more roots laterally than they do straight 
down: these require a little mound of earth directly 
under their centers, over which they should be placed 
and over which all the roots and rootlets should be 
adjusted. Then the earth, broken until it is fine and 
smooth, must be sifted in and around and against every 
little root fiber, packed firmly, watered in — after 
enough of it is on so that water will not drive against 
the roots and cake mud around them — and so finally 
filled up to the top of the hole. 

The operation is all perfectly simple, and just a 
matter of common sense and patience. Do not start 
such work when there is any chance of not being able 
to go right through with it to its completion: and never 
undertake it when the ground is wet enough to be soggy, 
for then it will not pack thoroughly up against the 
small rootlets, but will cake and make pockets around 
them — and will bruise and tear them too. 

Herbaceous plants may usually be moved at any 
time during the summer, but it is better to wait until 
after they have finished blossoming, ordinarily. If the 
work is as well done as it perfectly well may be how- 
ever, they need never know that they have been 
molested; in which case they will go right ahead and 
blossom as if nothing had happened. But with very 
large specimens this is hardly likely to be the case, even 
though as much earth as possible is taken up with 

149 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



them. The roots are bound to be more or less 
disturbed. 

Holes for trees should be dug as large as the full 
spread of the roots, and if there are some roots running 
out beyond the line of all the others, dig a place for 
them especially. Put everything into the ground as 
nearly as possible just as it came out; face it the same 
way, with the north side to the north — this can be done 
by marking those things which are being transplanted 
within the garden — and set it at the same depth it was 
before — no more, no less. 

Evergreens are in a class quite apart from every- 
thing else, when it comes to planting or transplant- 
ing, and the beginner will do better if he lets them alone. 
They must never have their roots exposed an instant to 
the air or the wind — hence they have to be handled 
always with a ball of earth as large as their roots — and 
this requires some skill and experience. The only 
time when it can be done at all by an inexperienced 
person with the slightest chance of success, is in the 
winter, when the ground is frozen so that it adheres 
to the roots. Then a specimen may be literally cut 
out of the ground, and moved into a hole cut to 
receive it; and it may live — but then again, it may not. 

The chances are against it, for the ball of earth 
required to take in all the roots of even a small evergreen 
will weigh so much that the transplanter is likely to 
skimp it — and thus sacrifice more root growth than the 
plant can spare. For their roots are more necessary 
to an evergreen, in a way, than the roots of a deciduous 

150 




In moving any shrub or tree be sure to cut away with 
a sharp knife all broken or decaying roots before setting 
the plant into its new location 



In transplanting a small tree or shrub, make the hole 
large enough to receive the full spread of the roots 
and see that these are gently and carefully arranged 
as nearly as possible in the way they were taken out 



SOME GENERAL GARDEN TALK 



tree are to it, inasmuch as an evergreen transpires from 
its leaves constantly, all the year around. Consequently 
it has no chance to catch up with a loss of roots. A 
deciduous tree will shed some of its leaves if it has to, 
to keep the balance — then proceed to grow new roots 
and then restore the leaves, and is quite as well off, 
both as to looks and health. An evergreen cannot 
do this. 

Trees with thin, smooth, tender bark should have 
their trunks protected from the winter sun, after trans- 
planting. A jacket of straw bound onto the south 
side of the tree with rafha is useful for this — or a coat 
of whitewash may be sufficient, the white resisting 
the heat rays sufficiently to afford all the protection 
needed. It is simply to keep the bark from drying 
and cracking until the sap returns and softens it in the 
spring. 

In setting a hedge it is usually easier as well as 
better to dig a trench somewhat deeper than the roots 
of the plants would be expected to go. Put manure 
in the bottom of this, then sprinkle on an inch of loose 
earth; then stand the plants along, as near together as 
they should be — nine inches apart is the accepted dis- 
tance for privet, more for evergreens, depending on the 
size of the plants when set — and fill in the earth all 
along the line, firming it down afterward by tramping. 

Keep everything that is planted for ornament in 
masses; have a mass of lawn, masses of shrubs, clumps 
of trees, masses of flowers in borders or among shrubbery 
(never beds anywhere unless they are a part of the 

151 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



design of a formally laid out garden) and masses of one 
or two or three kinds of flowers to make up the larger 
border mass. Isolated planting will never produce 
anything more than interesting and perhaps beautiful 
flowers; beauty as a whole a place will lack unless 
the arrangement of the whole conforms to the laws of 
beauty which apply to all outdoors. 



152 



XXI 



The Gardener's Calendar 



Date 


JANUARY 


1 

to 
15 




Inspect spraying apparatus and order whatever may be required, 
klake a plan, to scale, of house and grounds, indicating all plant- 
ing already done. 
Have all carting that must cross lawns done while ground is frozen. 
Read up on insects and sprays; order whatever may be needed. 
Sote spots requiring / shrub, tree or group to improve winter effect. 


15 
to 

31 


Inspect tools, repair, note those needed and order them. 
Do the winter spraying as directed in chapter dealing with pesta. 
Send to the best nurserymen and seedsmen for catalogues. 
Make frames for hotbed and coldframe and get Bash ready; make 
new flats. 

Make a list of things to be done, check off aa done — £ind finish each 
job! 



FEBRUARY 
Seeds to be Sown Indoors 



Flower 



Vegetable 



Dianthus (clove pink) 
Cosmos 

Any Perennials 



Beans 

Carrot 

Cucumber 

Lettuce 

Pepper 

Tomato 



Cabbage 

Celery 

Egg-plant 

Parsley 

Radish 



Make detailed plan of vegetable garden, locating and giving plant- 
ing date for each thing. 

Show successive crops, with planting date, in different colored ink. 

Order garden seeds at once ; prepare earth in flats; dress lawn with 
bone meal. 

Order manure for hotbed, to be delivered on the fifteenth. 

Have all plans for improvements perfected and decided upon by now. 



16 



Pile manure where hotbed is to be ; 
over on fourth day if steaming. 



sprinkle if necessary; turn 



153 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



February (continued) 



Finish winter spraying; put sash on coldframe so it may thaw out. 
Read up on fertilizers and order what is required ; tidy up labels 
and make new. 

Turn manure for hotbed again; spread manure on vegetable garden 
and borders. 

Pack hotbed manure, put on frame, fix earth, cover with flash and 
let warm up. 



MARCH 

Seeds to be Sown in Hotbed 

Flower I Vegetable 



Matthiola incana (stocks) 
Ageratum (floss-flower) 
Arctotis grandis (African daisy) 
Salpiglossis (painted tongue) 



Beans Beets 
Brussels Sprouts Cabbage 

Carrot Cauliflower 

Celery Egg-plant 

Kohlrabi Lettuce 

Parsley ±^epper 

Radish Tomato 



15 



Test temperature of hotbed often; sow seed as soon as it drops 
below 90° F. 

Transplant seedlings from flats as needed; watch and water and 
give air. 

Put nitrate of soda and salt on asparagus beds and around rhubarb. 
Prune fruit trees ; order nursery stock for April delivery ; rake up 
Utter. 

Lime sour soils ; uncover bulbs ; prune hybrid perpetual roses. 



15 



to 



31 



Roll the lawn, dig out weeds, seed bare places ; keep careful watch 

of the hotbed. 

Plant sweet peas; tie up \ines anew; burn old branches; margin 
walks. 

Grafting and sodding should be done now; sandy soil may be 

ready for plowing. 
Transplant indoor seedlings into thumb pots; attend to March 

spraying. 

Make screen boxes for melons, get bean poles ready and finish 
inside work. 



APRIL 
Seeds to be Sown 



HOTBED I OPEN GROUND 



Flowers 


Vegetables 


Flowers 


Vegetables 


Hehotropium 
(hehotrope) 
Aster 
Petunia 


Cucumber 

Egg-plant 

Melon 

Pepper 

Tomato 


Reseda 

(Mignonette) 
Dianthus 

(pink) 
Cosmos 
Gypsophila 


English Beans Lettuce 
Beets Onion 
Brussels Sprouts Parsley 
Early Cabbage Parsnip 
Carrot Peas 
Cauliflower Potatoes 



154 



THE GARDENER'S CALENDAR 



April (continued) 



Eschscholtzia 
(poppy) 



Celery- 
Cress 
Kohlrabi 



Radish 
Spinach 
Early Tiirnip 



Transplant cabbage and cauliflower to garden if season is normal. 
Start seeds in frame left vacant by these ; keep watch on all young 
plants. 

New shrubbery and trees may be planted now if ground is fairly dry. 
Prune grape vines and orchard fruits; dig aroimd and fertilise 
everything. 

Set forced Easter plants and bulbs outdoors in the border. 

Rub sprouts from trees as soon as they appear; spray roses with 
Bordeaux. 

Divide and replant perennials that have been three years ia one 
place. 

Spray everything as directed for late April. 

All planting of shrubs and trees should be completed by end of 
month. 

Set out pansies if they have wintered in the coldframe. 



MAY 



Seeds to 


BE Sown 




Flowers 


Vegetables 


Matthiola bicornis (stock) 


Artichoke Beans 


Nicotiana (tobacco) 


Beets 


Brussels Sprouts 


Asperula (sweet woodruff) 


Carrot 


Cauliflower 


Antirrhinum (snapdragon) 


Celery 


Com 


Ageratum (floss-flower) 


Cress 


Cucumber 


Arctotis (African daisy) 


Kohlrabi 


Lettuce 


Aster 


Melon 


Onion 


Calendula (pot Marigold) 


Parsley 


Parsnip 


Centaurea (bachelor's button) 


Peas 


Potatoes 


Delphinium (annual larkspur) 


Radish 


Salsify 


Gypsophila (baby's breath) 


Spinach 


Early Turnip 


Helichrysum (straw flower) 




All Herbs 


Lavatera (annual mallow) 






Matricaria (feverfew) 






Nasturtium 






Petunia 






Portulaca 






Salpiglossis (painted tongue) 






Scabiosa (mourning bride) 






Salvia 






Zinnia (youth-and-old-age) 







Watch for late frost and keep mulch at hand to put on if it threatens. 
Consult spraying table for dates of operations; several this month. 
Cabbage, cauhflower and sprouts need watching for insects; 
currant bushes also. 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



May (continued) 



15 



Keep weeds down right from the start; transplant seedlings 

fast as they are ready for it. 
All spading and ploughing shovild be done by now. 



15 



to 



31 



need whale-oil spray now; transplant everything from 
frames as soon as frost is surely gone. 
Do everything possible to encourage and entertain the birds ; the 

garden needs them. 
Thin out seedlings ; indicate final distance apart of everything on 
its label. 

Have labels ready before needed ; this greatly facilitates the work. 
Spray and watch for insect depredations ; prune the spring flower- 
ing shrubs that have finished blossoming. 



JUNE 
Seeds to be Sown 



Vegetable 



Beans 

Late Cabbage 
Cress 
Kohlrabi 
Early Peas 
Salsify 



Beets 

Carrot 

Cucumber 

Lettuce 

Potatoes 

Spinach 



Broccoli 

Caviliflower 

Endive 

IMelon 

Pumpkin 

Squash 



Brussels Sprouts 

Corn 

Kale 

Okra 

Radish 

Herbs 



(also a third sowing of Gypsophila) 



Rub off all shoots on newly set trees and woody vines ; trim ever- 
green hedges. 

Watch for currant worms, rose beetles, aphids, etc. 

Spray as directed in spraying table, as often as necessary. 

Layer the joints of all squash and melon vines; tie up tall vegetables. 

Thin out and keep thinning out! Rake the ground twice a week at 
least. 



15 
to 
30 



Watch for the castings of borers at base of trees and everywhere; 

dig them out with a wire or jack-knife. 
Pick off all seed pods from perennials and annuals to keep up their 

bloom. 

Spraying, weeding, thinning, are the three Jime "perpetuals." 



JULY 
Seeds to be Sown 



Vegetable 



Beans 
Corn Salad 
Gherkin 
Nasturtium 
Radish 



Beets 

Cress 

Kale 

Okra 

Spinach 



Carrot 
Cucumber 
Kohlrabi 
Early Peas 
Squash 



Corn 
Endive 
Lettuce 
Pumpkin 
White Turnip 



(also second sowing of Reseda) 
156 



THE GARDENER'S CALENDAR 



July (continueu 



Pinch back rank growing things, thus keeping them to a good 
bushy foriia. 

Re-work the garden after harvesting early vegetables and sow 
new crops. 

Vegetables sown now supply the table in October; do not neglect 
this. 

Start perennials outdoors as directed in Chapter XVII, for next 
year's flowering. 

Keep up the tillage of everything ; tie things up as fast as they grow. 
Spraying operations go on still; keep track of them by the table. 
Remove suckers from all trees; they are devitalizing. 
Use fertihzers as you see the need for them. 

Destroy, by burning, anything that seems hopelessly sick or 
infested with scale or borers. 



AUGUST 
Seeds to be Sown 

Bush Beans Tuberous Chervil Corn Salad Cucumber 

Endive Lettuce Welsh Onion Early Peas 

Radish (winter) Spinach Turnip 



Order evergreens for delivery the middle of the month. 

Sow perennials if this was not done in July; the coldframe is a 

good place for them. 
Keep everything mulched with lawn clippings around its roots to 

conserve moisture. 



There is stiU spraying to be done for the codUng moth ; watch out. 
Roses need care every week of every month. 

Mow the lawn regularly even if it is dry; do not let it get weedy. 



SEPTEMBER 
Seeds to be Sown 

Cabbage for coldframe Cauliflower for coldframe 

Tuberous Chervil Corn Salad 

Cress Siberian Kale 

Lettuce Mustard 

Winter Radish Spinach 

Turnip 

(also Sweet Peas for next summer) 

1 Order bulbs at once, for indoor and outdoor use. 

This is the time above all others to plant peonies, 
to Set about making the corrections in flower borders that the sum- 
mer has shown were needed. 



THE GARDEN PRIMER 



September (continued) 



Perennials that have finished flowering can be moved now and be 
ready for next year. 

Save all leaves, dead branches (of healthy plants) and everything 

that can go to make compost. 
Cut out old canes of berries. 

Keep weeds out ; cut off seed pods, but let the tilling go from now on. 
Save seeds from any favorite that you may wish to propagate. 



OCTOBER 

Rake up bare spots in lawn; dress with sheep manure and seed 
liberally. 

Keep the grass cut as regularly as in midsummer, up to the last 
minute. 

Fall planting should be done this month; order shrubs and trees 
now. 

Cut down the tops of perennials that have died, except where this 
is advised against. 

Get the winter dressings ready or arranged for, in good season. 
Set out bulbs as directed in the chapter dealing with them. 
Clean up everywhere, spread manure over the vegetable garden, 

plough or spade it and leave it for the winter. 
Transplant the plants to the coldframe that are to be wintered 

there. 



NOVEMBER 

Pile everything in the shape of rakings into a heap, mix a little 
lime through it or not, and thus prepare compost for spring. 

Root vegetables are now to be stored for the winter. 

Seed of corn salad, kale and spinach may be broadcasted over 
patches of the garden for early spring use. 

Give rhubarb and peonies a heavy dressing of manure. 

Take up tender bulbs and tubers, shake the earth from them and 
handle aa directed in the bulb chapter. 



DECEMBER 

As soon as the ground freezes, mulch everything with leaves or straw. 
Salt grass is often used and has the advantage of not being full of 
weeds. 

Hold mulch in place by some shovelfuls of earth thrown over it. 

Cover coldframes at night with straw mats and wooden .shutters. 

Gather all cocoons and everything that looks suspicious, from every 
tree and shrub, and bum them. 

Trim out dead branches and prune generally, except spring-flow- 
ering shrubs. 



158 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Agriculture, Department of, 41, 

73, 85, 90, 91. 

Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, 90, 91. 

air, in soil, 12, 17. 

altitude, 5. 

annuals, 3, 4, 5, 6, 122, 132, 133. 
annuals, planting table of, 132, 
133- 

annual shoots, 35. 
aphids, 42, 140. 

apple, 35. 37, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 
72. 

apricot, 57, 58, 60, 61. 

April in the garden, 57, 58, 60, 

81, 82, 83, 106, 154, 155. 
arid places, plants for, 127. 
arsenical poisons, 40, 42, 46, 47. 
August in the garden, 62, 81, 82, 

83, 100, 124, 157. 

bees, 64, 65, 67. 
beetles, 40, 64, 67. 
biennials, 3, 4. 
bittersweet, 71. 
blackberry, 37. 
bog, 120. 

bog plants, table of, 126. 
Bordeaux mixture, 47, 52. 
borers, 43. 

broadcast sowing, 17. 
bud, 28, 29, 30, 31. 
bulbs, 109, no. III, 112, 113, 
114, 115. 
storing, 113. 
bulb planting table, 116. 

calycanthus, loi. 
carbolic emulsion, 54. 
carbon bisulphide, 54. 



ceanothus, 102. 
cherry, 37, 57, 60, 61. 
clay soil, 11, 12, 13, 104. 

climbers, 5. 

codling moth (see Spraying 

Table and Calendar), 
coldframe, 140. 
corm, 109. 
cornus, 102. 
cotyledon, 19. 
crocus, 1 12 (see Bulbs), 
crown imperial, 112 (see Bulbs), 
cultivation, 24. 
cultivator, 24, 

curculio (see Spraying Table and 

Calendar) . 
currant, 37. 

cuttings, 92, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102. 
cutworm, 55, 67. 
cydonia, 102. 
cypress vine, 8. 

daffodil, 112. 
Dahlia, 113. 

December in the garden, 158. 

deep soil, 12. 

Deutzia, 102. 

dibble, 21. 

Diervilla, 102. 

dog's tooth violet, 112. 

drills, 16. 

dry soil, 11. 

exochorda, loi. 
evergreens, 150. 

February in the garden, 57, 60, 

81, 82, 153, 154. 
fertilizers, 84, 104, in. 
fertilizing, 70, 84. 



161 



flats, i6, lOO. 
float, 17. 

flowers, 18, 27, 28, 69, 72, 75. 

Forsythia, 38, loi. 

form of growth, 34, 35. 

formulae, 46 to 55. 

fragrant flowers, table of, 130, 

131- 

frames, 16. 
frost, 36. 

fruit, 37, 38, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 

78, 89. 
fruit tree, 35, 37, 56. 
fungi, 39 (see Spraying Table 

and Calendar), 
fungicides, 52, 53, 54, 55. 

garden, flower, 118. 
general garden talk, i, 147. 
germination of seed, 8, 18, 20. 
grapes, 38, 72. 
grass seed, 105. 
grasshopper, 40, 55. 
gravelly soil, 11. 
grubs, 40. 

heading in, 35, 97. 
hedge, 30, 151. 
hellebore, 42, 48. 
hibiscus, 38. 

hillSj plants to be set in, 16, 17. 
hillsides, 121. 
honey locust, 71. 
honeysuckle, 38, 96. 
horsechestnut, 71. 
hotbed, 136, 140. 
hyacinth, 112 (see Bulbs), 
hydrangea, 36, 38, I02.j 

insects, 39 to 45. 

helpers, 63. 
insecticides, 40 to 55. 
Ipomoea, 8. 
iris, 112 (see Bulbs). 

January in the garden, 60, 153. 
June in the garden, 57, 61, 81, 
82, 83, 156. 



July in the garden, 61, 81, 82, 
83, 100, 124, 156, 157. 

kerosene emulsion, 48. 
Kerria, loi. 

lady bug, 63, 64. 

Latin names of plants, 7, 8, 9, 10. 

latitude, 5. 

lawn, 103 to 108. 

layering, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 

lOI. 

leaves, 19, 28, 29, 86, 112. 
light soil, 12. 
lilac, 36, 38, 147. 
lily, 112 (see Bulbs), 
lime, 87. 

lime, sulphur and salt wash, 50. 

loam, II, 12. 

locusts, 40 (see Insects). 

Lonicera, 38. 

louse, plant, 42, 43, 44. 

maggots, 40, 43 (see Insects), 
manure, 13, 104, 108, ill, 136, 

151. 

maple, 71. 

March in the garden, 57, 58, 60, 

81, 82, 83, III, 154. 
mature plants, care of, 24. 
May in the garden, 57, 58, 61, 

81, 82, 83, 104, 106, 155, 156. 
melons, 16. 
moonflower, 8. 
morning-glory, 8. 
moisture, degree of, 25. 
mulch, III. 

names of plants, 7, 8, 9, 10. 
Narcissus, 112 (see Bulbs), 
nitrogen, 87, 88. 
nomenclature, 7, 8, 9, 10. 
November in the garden, no, 
117, 158. 

oak, 70, 71. 

October in the garden, 106, no, 
116, 117, 158. 



162 



peach, 37, 57, 58, 60, 61. 
pear, 35, 37» 57. 60, 61, 72. 
perennials, 3, 4, 5, 6, 122, 125 

to 129, 134, 135. 
pests, 39. 
petunias, 16. 
phosphoric acid, 87, 88. 
pistil, 70. 

plant names, 7, 8, 9, 10. 

plant tables, 116, 125, 126, 127, 

128, 129, 130, 132 to 135. 
plum, 37, 57, 58, 60, 61, 72. 
plumule, 19. 
poison, 40 to 55. 
poppies, 4, 16. 
pollen, 65, 72, 75. 
pollination, 65, 69, 72, 75. 
potash, 87, 88. 
potassium sulphide, 53. 
privet, 30. 
propagation, 92. 
pruning, 28 to 38. 
psylla, 67 (see Spraying Table 

and Calendar). 
Philadelphus, 38, loi. ^ 
pussy willow, 70, 71. 

rain, 25. 

raspberrjT-, 37. 

rhizome, 109, 114. 

rockery, 120. 

rock plants, 125. 

rose, 38, 58, 59, 61, 62, 70, I02-. 

rose bug (see Spraying Table 

and Calendar), 
rhus, loi. 
ribes, loi. 

sand, II, 12, 13, 104. 
sandy places, plants for, 121, 
127. 

scab (see Spraying Table and 

Calendar), 
scale (see Spraying Table and 

Calendar), 
sambucus, 102. 
sassafras, 71. 

seed, 5, 15, 18, 19, 28, 74, 79, 92 
seedlings, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 92 



self sowing, 4. 

self sterility, 72, 73. 

September in the garden, 83, 

106, 116, 117, 157, 158. 
sex in flowers, 70 to 74. 
shady places, plants for, 128. 
shrubs, 4, 27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 57, 

58, 60, 61, 62, 96, lOI. 
shoots, 35, 36. 

slugs (see Spraying Table and 

Calendar) . 
snowdrop, 112, 113. 
soil, 5, II, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21 to 

27, 79, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 103, 

no. 

soil binder, 129. 
soap wash, 51. 
sowing, 15, 105, 106. 
spiraea, 38, 102. 
spray, 44. 
sprayers, 44. 

Spraying Calendar, 60 to 62. 
Spraying Table, 57 to 59. 
spores, 76. 
stamen, 69, 70. 

star-of-Bethlehem, 112 (see 

Bulbs), 
squills, 112 (see Bulbs), 
stolon, 92. 
stony soil, 11. 

subterranean insects, 43, 54. 
sumach, 71. 
sweet peas, 16. 
summer spray, 49, 57. 
syringa, 38, 102. 

taproot, 23. 
tillage, 24, 25, 26, 27. 
tools, 143 to 146. 
trailers, 5. 

transplanting, 21, 22, 23, 147. 
trees, 4, 27, 32 to 36, 57, 58, 60, 

61, 62, 96, 151. 
trillium, 112 (see Bulbs), 
tubers, 109. 
tulip, 112 (see Bulbs). 



vegetables, 18, 77, 78, 79. 

vegetable table, 78. 

163 



vegetable planting, 8i, 82. 
vines, 5, 35. 
viburnum, 75, loi. 

water, 5, 12, 16, 18, 25, 86, 123, 
139- 

weeds, 24, 25, 26, 108, 



weeder, 26. 

weevils, 40. 

wet soil, n, 126. 

wheel hoe, 143. 

wind, prevailing winter, 5. 

winter spray, 49, 57. 

worm, 40, 55, 68. 



164 



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